Volvo will take the wraps off its V90 Cross Country wagon this month

By Stephen Edelstein Published September 9, 2016

Almost as iconic as the Volvo station wagon itself is the Cross Country name many of those wagons have worn since 1997. The Cross Country is essentially Volvo’s answer to the Subaru Outback and Audi Allroad: a wagon dressed up as an SUV, with a taller ride height and macho-looking body cladding.

The Cross Country tradition will continue with Volvo’s latest wagon. A V90 Cross Country will be revealed later this month, Volvo confirmed in a press release. Like previous models, the V90 Cross Country probably won’t differ mechanically from other V90 variants, but it will have a tougher look meant to woo SUV shoppers.

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That tactic has worked pretty well for Volvo over the past 20 years. The first-generation Cross Country, known as the V70 XC and based on the V70 wagon, was devised as a way to keep sales of Volvo’s staple product strong in the face of rising SUV popularity. The availability of all-wheel drive made Cross Country wagons harbingers of the modern car-based crossover SUV.

Read more: Check out Volvo’s record-smashing, 2,400-hp truck

The V90 Cross Country will likely replace the current XC70 model, which is based on an older platform shared with the outgoing S80 sedan. Volvo also offers a Cross Country version of the smaller V60 wagon, and even gave the S60 sedan the Cross Country treatment. The “60” models will be redesigned soon, moving to the same Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform as the V90.

Powertrain offerings on the V90 Cross Country will likely mirror those of the standard V90, which is offered exclusively with four-cylinder engines. The T5 version uses a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine, while the T6 gets a 2.0-liter that is both turbocharged and supercharged. Finally, the T8 “Twin Engine” marries the T6 engine to a plug-in hybrid system. Expect all-wheel drive to be available on the Cross Country, if not mandatory.

Since the standard V90 doesn’t go on sale in the U.S. until sometime next year, don’t expect the Cross Country to appear in showrooms for awhile. But Volvo plans to reveal the wagon later this month, so check back soon for more details.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs

2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time. The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

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Waymo faces questions about its use of onboard cameras for AI training, ads targeting

Two people exit a Waymo taxi.

In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner.

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Waymo’s driverless cars are about to begin an overseas adventure

Waymo Jaguar I-Pace

Waymo’s autonomous cars are about to appear on streets outside of the U.S. for the first time.

The company on Wednesday announced on social media that its autonomous cars will be driving onto the streets of Tokyo, Japan, “soon,” with some reports suggesting the rollout will begin as early as next week.