A new software update has given the Volvo EX60, EX90 and ES90 the ability to alert drivers of other such Volvos to animals by the roadside.

It uses the car’s sensors and cameras to detect larger animals, such as deer or sheep, in order to warn drivers before they may have spotted such hazards themselves. The car then uploads the positional data of the hazard to the cloud, which pings other EX60s, EX90s and ES90s within the vicinity to warn them as they approach, potentially preventing a collision.

The update adds a similar system to warn of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians or cyclists, and roadworks ahead.

Other cars connected through the European Data for Road Safety programme will also be able to read the alerts.

Volvo safety chief Åsa Haglund told Autocar that such systems are enabled by the improved computational power of the new models compared with the brand’s previous models. 

Haglund added that a key consideration in adding such systems was to ensure that drivers are not overwhelmed by information, and that the warnings are "trustworthy". Otherwise they may fall on deaf ears.

“We need to make sure that whenever we warn you, it makes sense to you," she said. "If every second time it doesn't make sense, that's when you're going to stop trusting the system.”

Haglund said the new cars’ technological platforms are key to ensuring that reliability: “Now, when we have this data, the new [technological] platform with the capability of collecting that amount of data and being able to analyse and train [software models] on it, that's when we are mature enough to kind of train the system to be very precise and alert people when relevant and leave them alone when not."

She added that “we [have launched it now] we know the quality and the preciseness make sense to people” because “only when you know drivers trust the system will it actually have an impact”.

To that end, Haglund said Volvo will not aim to be first to the market with new functions but instead only roll them out once it is confident in their reliability. “If we acted on any idea and just sent it out there, could we be quicker? For sure. Would it make the world safer? I doubt it,” she said. False positives “deteriorate trust” in driver assistance systems, she added.

More broadly, she suggested Volvo’s ambition is not to wrestle control of cars away from drivers but instead to provide support when their standard of driving slips. She said: “We’re human – we are prone to making mistakes. A machine can stay vigilant at all times. It does not get distracted, it does not get tired, and it can keep its eyes all around the car at the same time, right? That's the move we have to make; what we need to train [systems] for and make sure that we can cover all those situations that come up. What we need to look out for is that as long as the driver is in the loop, it's very clear what is needed and what is expected from them.”