Watching Niclas Lindberg, an ice-driving specialist, fluently testing adhesion in a Volvo EX30 is sufficient to mesmerise even a sophisticated motorist, not to mention this humble author on his first journey to Lulea, about 750 miles north of Gothenburg in Swedish Lapland.
This is the place Volvo has been testing, near the Arctic Circle, because the Nineteen Sixties. Right now, they’re evaluating the EX30 and rebadged EX40 (née XC40 Recharge).
Both vehicles have been topic to untold mileage (the precise quantity is difficult to compute, as a result of testing takes place over a number of years, with many autos concerned) throughout numerous maturity ranges, from early prototypes to remaining manufacturing vehicles.
Drivers, with numerous ranges of expertise, take a look at the vehicles in ambient temperatures of between -40deg C and +60deg C. Systems and parts should assure hundreds of various capabilities with very particular necessities.
Volvo’s senior security technical chief, Mikael Ljung Aust, has a background in cognitive science and is a driver behaviour knowledgeable. His analysis appears on the contributing components to crashes, and finally he tries to mitigate them.
He says: “Winter testing is easy sufficient. It checks how a automotive behaves, in a really strong method. It checks how a automotive behaves in extremes and, importantly, the way it interacts with drivers.
“Ultimately, from a security testing perspective, there are plenty of questions that want answering. What if it’s a wet day and there’s ice on the highway? How do the digital programs behave within the chilly? What concerning the exterior sensors? What concerning the inside ones? How does the battery final within the chilly?
“And sure, we could try and do it in some kind of hermetically sealed test environment. But nature is free!”
Volvo’s consideration to element means travelling removed from dwelling to know and handle a difficulty. Ljung Aust continues: “We’ve gone as far as sending engineers to America to test an edge case for our autonomous software systems. There was this bridge that set off the autonomous emergency braking – not just for Volvo – and we figured out the sensors were confusing the layout of the bridge with the rear of a truck. Using real-world data and learning from it, you see.”