Volvo’s Self-Driving System Moves Forward With Development
Volvo, a company know for building some of the safest automobiles on the planet, has been working on an autonomous, self-driving vehicle system over the last two years. Called the Drive Me System, Volvo’s goal is to have the system working well enough to have 100 autonomous cars driving around Gothenburg, Sweden in 2017. Yesterday, in an interactive, online press conference, the Swedish automaker’s executives updated the world on their progress.
This is an illustration of the range of sensors that will make up the Drive Me System.
In line with the company’s goal to have no wrecks in the future, the Drive Me System, based on the current XC90 platform, will feature a range of safety systems. The system will integrate cloud-based positioning sensors, 3D scanned maps, sensors and cameras on literally every side of the vehicle, and advanced steering and braking systems. Volvo did admit that this system will not be faultless. In case faults do occur due to incidences such as exceptional weather conditions, or technical malfunction, the driver of the vehicle will be prompted to take control.
The Drive Me System will have access to 3D Scanned maps of the roads and highways that will provide the autonomous car with information such as lane indicators and road signs.
The Drive Me pilot in 2017 will feature the not only this advanced system, but other first time occurrences. First of all, the drivers for the test run will not be Volvo test drivers, or pro race drivers. Volvo will have real customers drive the autonomous vehicles during the test. Second of all, the test drive will have a high level of collaboration between legislators, transport authorities, Gothenburg and Volvo themselves.
Volvo is exploring autonomous vehicles because they believe that the autonomous vehicle is the next big advancement in automotive technology. Since the test drive is a few years away, we can expect more updates like this the next few years.