Volvo and Uber are investing $300 million into an autonomous car project; one that will produce a “base car” that each company can use for moving their own autonomous vehicle technologies forward.
According to Volvo, the car will “include all needed safety, redundancy and new features required to have autonomous vehicles on the road.” In addition, the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) that is currently found on the new Volvo XC90, S90 and V90 models will also be implemented on the autonomous vehicles. The endeavor is expected to provide a basis for a standard level of autonomous systems. That way, it can be applied to future autonomous cars, trucks and SUVs.
As noted above, Volvo and Uber will partner in developing these sophisticated vehicles, however, Volvo will take the lead on building them. Once they are built, the automaker will then sell them to Uber. Of course, both companies have much to gain from this joint venture. For starters, Uber will be able to save a lot of money by not having to pay drivers. For Volvo, the self-driving cars will help push their agenda of no injuries or deaths in its vehicles by 2020.
Pittsburgh will see the first wave of these cars hit its streets in September 2016. And they will be good news for Uber users who will be able to get free rides while accompanied by vehicle "supervisors" in the driver and front passenger seats. This will provide an extra safety net in the event that something goes wrong.
