There is one obvious issue with the exterior, though: lidar The hump at the top of the windscreen. Volvo knows this is a problem, and I know it for two reasons. First, if you look at the fleet of official press images of the car you’ll see plenty of shots of the EX90 in profile for almost every possible angle. I got a profile shot, but the car is so far in the background that the hump is small, which is no doubt intentional. Up close it actually looks like an unlettered taxi sign. Second, I asked a Volvo designer at the brand-hosted launch if the team had problems dealing with the hump as we saw it exiting the roof, and he reluctantly confirmed that they did.
Still, that lidar enhances the car’s already strong protection. The company claims that this is the safest Volvo ever, as the sensor array is able to create a complete picture of the world around the car, picking up even small objects hundreds of meters away, whether it’s night or day. .
While this technology makes the EX90 capable of autonomous highway driving, Volvo isn’t enabling this capability yet, and Thomas Broberg, senior technical advisor for safety at Volvo, wouldn’t say when that would happen. “It’s more about what the car shouldn’t do than what it will do,” Broberg told me. He adds that Volvo needs more time to test its Level 3 self-driving technology, but then acknowledges that the company has been testing the system, or versions of it, for years. Early next year, the EX90 will allow supervised driving 2.5, apparently, but until then all drivers will be just collecting data for Volvo.
One final important point on the lidar hump. At the launch, I chatted with a representative from Luminar, the company that makes this sinister self-driving component. He tells me that the next generation of technology is half the size and that Luminar is working on fitting it into the windshield instead of having it sit proudly on top. It looks great, and you can expect to see it in cars as soon as 2026 or 2027. Sadly, Volvo won’t confirm if it’s going to upgrade the EX90 to this upcoming lump-free lidar. Let’s hope.
Lux interior
Speaking of radar, the EX90 has one inside as well. This is to prevent children or dogs from being accidentally left in, as well as all the driver monitoring and assistance systems you’ve come to expect from a Volvo. That’s a good thing, since the EX90 interior has such a luxurious nature (the Nordico “leather” trim is actually made from secondhand plastic and sustainable pine oil), you won’t want to leave unsupervised pets and kids to waste. Optional middle-row captain’s seats or a cavernous trunk, with a much easier “will it fit?” Illustrated charts, including a washing machine, chairs, skis and a refrigerator, let you see what items can be packed into the acres of back space.
