100 Autonomous Driving Volvo To Hit The Road
Volvo will send 100 self-driving cars on public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
These Volvo vehicles will be part of the project ‘Drive Me –
Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility’, a joint initiative between
Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish
Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg.
Endorsed by the Swedish government, Volvo said the aim of the project
is to pinpoint the societal benefits of autonomous driving and position
Sweden and Volvo Cars as leaders in the development of future mobility.
“Autonomous vehicles are an integrated part of Volvo Cars’ as well as
the Swedish government’s vision of zero traffic fatalities. This public
pilot represents an important step towards this goal,” says Håkan
Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Group. “It will give us an
insight into the technological challenges at the same time as we get
valuable feedback from real customers driving on public roads.”
Volvo added the pilot project will involve self-driving cars using
approximately 50 kilometers of selected roads in and around Gothenburg;
these roads are typical commuter arteries and include highway conditions
and bumper-to-bumper traffic.
“Our aim is for the car to be able to handle all possible traffic
scenarios by itself, including leaving the traffic flow and finding a
safe ‘harbour’ if the driver for any reason is unable to regain
control,” explained Erik Coelingh, Technical Specialist at Volvo Car
Group.
Volvo said the ‘Drive Me’ project will focus on a number of areas,
such as studying how autonomous vehicles bring societal and economic
benefits by improving traffic efficiency, the traffic environment and
road safety; looking into infrastructure requirements for autonomous
driving; identifying typical traffic situations most suitable for
autonomous vehicles; evaluating customers’ confidence in autonomous
vehicles as well as how surrounding drivers interact with a self-driving
car.
Volvo explained the project will start in 2014 with customer research
and technology development, as well as the development of a user
interface and cloud functionality. The first cars are expected to be on
the roads in Gothenburg by 2017.
Autonomous driving will give significant consumer benefits, according
to Volvo, and will fundamentally change the way we look at driving
cars. As a driver in the future, you will be able to plan your drive
with a mix of autonomous and active driving, making your daily journey
more efficient.
“The self-driving technology used in the pilot allows you to hand
over the driving to the car when the circumstances are appropriate,”
said Håkan Samuelsson.
The vehicles in the pilot project will be defined as Highly
Autonomous Cars, according to the official definition by the Federal
Highway Research Institute (BASt) in Germany. In practical terms this
means that the responsibility is handed over to the vehicle, which can
handle all driving functions at the driver’s discretion. The driver is
expected to be available for occasional control but with a sufficiently
comfortable transition time.
“Our approach is based on the principle that autonomously driven cars
must be able to move safely in environments with non-autonomous
vehicles and unprotected road users,” said Erik Coelingh.
Volvo explained the 100 Volvo cars driven by customers will be new
models developed on the company’s upcoming Scalable Product Architecture
(SPA). The architecture is prepared for the continuous introduction of
new support and safety systems all the way to technologies that enable
highly autonomous drive.
The first SPA model to be released will be the next generation Volvo XC90 SUV, which will be introduced in 2014.