Volvo Cars and Uber have unveiled a jointly-developed production car with self-driving capabilities, representing a significant milestone for the partnership.
The two companies entered a joint engineering agreement in 2016 and have since developed several prototypes to accelerate the development of self-driving cars. The Volvo XC90 SUV marks the first production car from the partnership that is capable of fully-autonomous driving.
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The XC90 base vehicle is equipped with key safety features that allow Uber to install its own self-driving system, enabling the possible future deployment of self-driving cars in Uber’s network as an autonomous ridesharing service.
The most important features of Volvo Cars’ autonomous drive-ready production vehicle include several back-up systems for both steering and braking functions as well as battery back-up power. If any of the primary systems should fail, the back-up systems are designed to immediately act to bring the car to a stop.
Various sensors can be found on top and inside the vehicle, designed for the car to safely operate in urban environments.
“We believe autonomous drive technology will allow us to further improve safety, the foundation of our company,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars. “By the middle of the next decade we expect one-third of all cars we sell to be fully autonomous. Our agreement with Uber underlines our ambition to be the supplier of choice to the world’s leading ride-hailing companies.”
“Working in close cooperation with companies like Volvo is a key ingredient to effectively building a safe, scalable, self-driving fleet,” said Eric Meyhofer, chief executive of Uber Advanced Technologies Group. “Volvo has long been known for their commitment to safety, which is the cornerstone of their newest production-ready self-driving base vehicle. When paired with our self-driving technology, this vehicle will be a key ingredient in Uber’s autonomous product suite.”
