Courtesy of Volvo
Need a ride? Soon, a driver won’t be necessary. Volvo Cars and Uber have joined forces to develop autonomous driving cars.
The 2 companies recently announced that they are working jointly on self-driving car technology and will use the same base car for the next stage of their own autonomous driving car strategies. For its part, Uber will add the self-driving systems it has developed, while Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of its development process, which will involve fully autonomous driving.
The 2 companies are contributing a total of $300 million to the project. Volvo will manufacture the base cars, using the company’s fully modular Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which is currently used on its XC90, S90 and V90 cars. Engineers from Volvo and Uber will collaborate on the development to expand the scalability with redundant features to ensure safety when the cars are on the road.
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Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, said: “Over 1 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.”
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Tara Baukus Mello writes the cars blog as well as the weekly Driving for Dollars column, providing both practical financial advice for consumers as well as insight into the latest developments in the automotive world. Follow her on Facebook here or on Twitter @SheDrives.
