Volvo Cars is rolling out a software update that adds four new car-to-car hazard warnings, covering large animals, pedestrians and cyclists, roadworks and accidents further ahead. The alerts arrive in the EX60, EX90 and ES90 in Europe, the United States and Canada. The same update brings Spatial Audio support in Apple CarPlay to the EX90 and ES90.
Volvo Cars is expanding the connected safety system it first launched in 2016, adding four new types of warning that are shared between cars in real time. The idea is unchanged: when one vehicle detects a hazard, the information is passed on so drivers further back get more time to react.
Four new warnings
The update introduces a Large Animal Alert, which can warn other drivers when a large animal is detected on or near the road ahead, and a Vulnerable Road User Alert, which does the same for pedestrians and cyclists detected on or near highways. A Roadwork Alert flags roadworks ahead, while an Accident Ahead Alert draws on real-time data from connected Volvo cars or from traffic management centres.
The four join the existing Slippery Road Alert and Hazard Light Alert. According to the company, the additions are aimed in particular at low-visibility situations such as winding roads or poor weather, where a driver may have little warning of what lies around the next bend.
More than a million cars in the network
A hazard-sharing system is only as useful as the number of cars feeding it, and Volvo says more than one million of its vehicles have activated the technology. The data is not confined to the brand’s own fleet either: through the European Data for Road Safety ecosystem, alerts can be shared with cars from other manufacturers and with national traffic management centres.
“Built on decades of our real-world safety insight, these innovations represent another step towards our vision of zero collisions,” says Åsa Haglund, head of Volvo Cars Safety Centre. “Every time a Volvo car shares safety intelligence, it helps other drivers prepare earlier to avoid accidents and feel safer.”
Spatial Audio for the EX90 and ES90
The same software release adds Spatial Audio support in Apple CarPlay to the EX90 and ES90, using Dolby Atmos. It requires the Bowers & Wilkins premium sound system with its 25 speakers, which is an option when ordering the EX60, EX90 and ES90.
What it means
The update is a reminder of how much of a modern car’s safety kit now arrives after delivery rather than at the factory. Volvo notes that it was recently named by S&P Global Mobility as the only legacy carmaker to reach Level 5 capability in software-defined cars — a claim worth attributing to that assessment rather than treating as a settled benchmark. For owners, the practical point is that a car bought last year can gain warnings it did not have when it left the showroom.
The new connected safety features are due in the EX60, EX90 and ES90 in Europe, the United States and Canada, with timing varying by model.
Source: news.cision.com