The Swedish car maker Volvo has been known to be extremely committed towards developing autonomous vehicles. With their strong track record in safety, they are possibly one of the few manufacturers who can help self-driven cars be a safe house instead of a machine on a killing spree! In their search for glory, they have found an unusual playmate. The smartphone-based cab hailing facility Uber.
This new project will see the development of new base vehicles which will incorporate modern technologies. With an investment of 300 million dollars they intend to bring in fully autonomous vehicles. With a car maker signing an accord with a Silicon Valley, it shows how the automotive industry has grown with time.
The new base vehicle will be developed using Volvo’s acclaimed Scalable Product Architecture (SPA). Used currently in the XC90, S90 and V90, the underpinning saw the car maker spend 11 billion dollars in R&D. Both Volvo and Uber will be bringing in their inputs. Uber will be adding its own self-developed autonomous driving systems to the Volvo base vehicle. Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of its own autonomous car strategy, which will involve fully autonomous driving.
Each year sees over 1 million people die in car related accidents. Autonomous driving can help reduce this number vastly. The future certainly looks bright!
