Stockholm, Sweden — December 2, 2013 — Volvo Cars will play a leading role in the world’s first large-scale autonomous driving pilot project in which 100 self-driving Volvo cars will use public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
The project “Drive Me – Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility†is a joint initiative between Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg. Project “Drive Me†is endorsed by the Swedish Government.
According to a statement from Volvo, the aim 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 HÃ¥kan 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.”
The pilot will involve self-driving cars using approximately 50 kilometres of selected roads in and around Gothenburg. These roads are typical commuter arteries and include motorway conditions and frequent queues. The project also includes fully automated parking, without a driver in the car.
The projects starts in 2014 and the first cars are expected to be on the roads in Gothenburg by 2017.
The 100 Volvo cars will be new models developed on the upcoming Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which is prepared for the continuous introduction of new support and safety systems all the way to technologies that enable highly autonomous drive. First out will be the all-new Volvo XC90, which will be introduced in 2014.
A video regarding the project can be viewed in the players below.
