Volvo Self Driving Cars ‘Drive Me’ Project Kickstarts From 2017

By Ganesh

Updated: Saturday, January 25, 2014, 16:13 [IST]

Its now common knowledge that several automakers are working on developing self driving cars, also called autonomous drive vehicles. Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Volvo among others, have already showcased their capabilities. But now Volvo wants to take it to the next level by running 100 automatic cars in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

Also Read: Mercedes-Benz Demonstrates Self Driving S-Class

The project is called ‘Drive Me Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility' which is being jointly run by Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg. Recognised by the Swedish government, the first stage of Drive Me project will kickstart from 2014.

Also Read: Nissan Promises Self Driving Cars By 2020

However, the initial stages will not witness self driving cars - called Highly Autonomous Cars - driving around the city. That will start only in 2017. Before that stage is reached though the project will tackle a few critical problems such as customer research and technology development, development of a user interface and cloud functionality.

When the infrastructure is strong and ready Highly Autonomous Cars will ply on approximately 50 kilometers of selected roads in and around the city of Gothenburg. These roads will consist of major commuter arteries and include motorway conditions and frequent queues.

Volvo's Drive Me project will try to achieve several goals which include accessing benefits to society and economy, improving traffic efficiency, road safety, infrastructure requirements for autonomous driving Typical traffic situations suitable for autonomous vehicles, customers' confidence in autonomous vehicles, how surrounding drivers interact smoothly with a self-driving car and more.

Also Read: Volvo's Self Parking Car In Action

Besides autonomous drive capability Volvo's Highly Autonomous Cars will also have a self-park feature, something that Volvo has demonstrated before. Every autonomous car will have a disengage button, which will give control back to the driver.
Highly Autonomous Cars will be based on Volvo's upcoming Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform. The first Volvo built on SPA platform to debut will be the all-new XC90, that will debut in 2014.

"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."

Article Published On: Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 16:41 [IST]

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