Volvo will not launch any fully autonomous production cars in the foreseeable future and intends only to bring partially-autonomous vehicles to markets instead.
According to online reports, Volvo’s position on fully autonomous cars was confirmed during the company’s recent reveal of its 40 series concept cars, which preview an all-new V40 and XC40 compact crossover.
Volvo’s decision not to make completely driverless cars may surprise some given that Volvo has dedicated a lot of time and effort to testing cars with autonomous technology at test facilities and on public roads in its homeland Sweden.
However, Volvo reportedly believes that autonomous driving support is best suited to monotonous driving like negotiating traffic jams or motorways. Volvo believes drivers will want to retain control of their car in situations when driving fun is possible.
It’s also reported that Volvo plans to take full responsibility if a driver has an accident in one of their cars while using an autonomous driving mode, whereas other manufacturers have only talked about taking partial responsibility.
Autonomous cars test in London planned
Next year Volvo will launch the UK’s biggest autonomous driving trial in London, which is called Drive Me London. The manufacturer will supply members of the public XC90 models with autonomous technology onboard and collect real-world driving data from them in order to develop the software more for future production cars.
The cars will be semi-autonomous to begin with, having partial control over the throttle, brakes and steering. It’s believed that Volvo will utilise fully autonomous cars on motorways and certain A-roads in the later stages of the London trial. By 2018 the trial is set to involved up to 100 cars.
You can learn more here about what other manufacturers current positions are in regards the development of driverless cars.
