Volvo Cars and Uber join forces to develop autonomous driving cars, making the future safer
Volvo Cars and Uber join forces to develop autonomous driving cars, making the future safer
Volvo Cars and Uber are to join forces to develop next-generation autonomous driving cars.
Volvo and Uber to make the future safer
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s Chief Executive, says: “Over one million people die in car accidents every year. These are tragedies that self-driving technology can help solve, but we can’t do this alone. That’s why our partnership with a great manufacturer like Volvo is so important. Volvo is a leader in vehicle development and best-in-class when it comes to safety. By combining the capabilities of Uber and Volvo we will get to the future faster, together.” These companies make the future safer.
This is great news, as it will make our lives safer, in 2 ways: Volvo is developing self-driving cars, with built-in safety and collision avoidance (taking out the human error factor in car crashes) while Uber will still be able to send a car to fetch and drop you off, but it will be a driverless car arriving (therefore without the risk of getting into an unknown car with an unknown person, trusting him/her to take you somewhere).
Volvo (as the Swedish premium car maker) and Uber (the world’s leading ride-sharing company) have signed an agreement to establish a joint project that will develop new vehicles that will be able to incorporate the latest developments in AD (Autonomous Driving) technologies, including fully autonomous driverless cars. Volvo Cars and Uber are contributing a combined USD300m (300 million US Dollars) to the project. Both Uber and Volvo will use the same base vehicles for the next stage of their own autonomous car strategies.
The Volvo-Uber project marks a significant step in the automotive business, with a car manufacturer joining forces with a new Silicon Valley-based entrant to the car industry, underlining the way in which the global automotive industry is evolving in response to the advent of new technologies. The alliance marks the beginning of what both companies view as a longer-term industrial partnership.
“Volvo is one of the most progressive and contemporary car makers in the world. It is a world leader in the development of active safety and autonomous drive technology, and possesses an unrivalled safety credibility. We are very proud to be the partner of choice for Uber, one of the world’s leading technology companies. This alliance places Volvo at the heart of the current technological revolution in the automotive industry.”” says Håkan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars.
Volvo XC90, S90 and V90 as base vehicles… nice
The new base vehicles will be developed on Volvo Cars’ fully modular Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) as currently used on top-of-the-line XC90 SUV, S90 premium saloon and V90 premium estate. Choosing the safety and comfort of the biggest Volvos to be driven around in… nice.
The development work will be conducted by Volvo Cars engineers and Uber engineers in close collaboration. This project will further add to the scalability of the SPA platform to include all needed safety, redundancy and new features required to have autonomous vehicles on the road.