The V90 Cross Country’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The QX50 doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the V90 Cross Country and QX50 have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The V90 Cross Country has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The QX50’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Volvo V90 Cross Country offers optional built in child booster seats. They’re more crash worthy than an added child seat because of their direct attachment to the seat. Infiniti doesn’t offer the convenience and security of a built-in child booster seat in the QX50. Their owners must carry a heavy booster seat in and out of the vehicle; V90 Cross Country owners can just fold their built-in child seat up or down.
The V90 Cross Country has a standard Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the WHIPS moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The QX50 doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The V90 Cross Country has standard Post-impact braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The QX50 doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the V90 Cross Country. But it costs extra on the QX50.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the V90 Cross Country’s standard Hill Descent Control allows you to creep down safely. The QX50 doesn’t offer Hill Descent Control.
Both the V90 Cross Country and QX50 have rear cross-traffic warning, but the V90 Cross Country has Braking Intervention (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The QX50’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert doesn’t automatically brake.
The V90 Cross Country’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The QX50 doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the V90 Cross Country and the QX50 have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front and rear side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Acceptable” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the V90 Cross Country its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 131 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The QX50 has not been fully tested, yet.