VOLVO CAR CANADA - Volvo Cars will introduce its unsupervised autonomous driving feature Ride Pilot to customers in the state of California first.
By building on an industry-leading safety
standard that will feature in Volvo Cars’ next generation of pure electric
cars, Ride Pilot aims to free up more time for customers and make driving a
Volvo even more convenient and enjoyable.
Once it has been verified as safe for use on
highways, Ride Pilot is planned to be available as an add-on subscription on
the company’s forthcoming fully electric SUV. This new flagship car for the
company will be revealed later this year.
On its next generation of cars, Volvo Cars is
setting a new standard for safety, with over-the-air software updates in
combination with a state-of-the-art sensor set-up. The software is developed by
autonomous driving (AD) software company Zenseact together with Volvo Cars’
in-house team of developers, and developers from Luminar, one of its technology
partners. The sensor set-up consists of more than two dozen sensors, including
Luminar’s cutting-edge Iris LiDAR sensor, which work hand in glove with the
developed software.
“We are proud to announce the
planned US launch of our first truly unsupervised autonomous driving feature,
as we look to set a new industry standard for autonomy without compromising
safety,”
said Mats Moberg, head of research and development at Volvo Cars. “Having Zenseact’s brand new AD software and
Luminar’s LiDAR standard in our new fully electric SUV is a game-changer for
Volvo Cars, as well as for automotive safety and autonomous driving.”
While this software-sensor combination, and the
safety it enables, will be standard, available from day one on Volvo Cars’
forthcoming fully electric SUV and improve over time, Ride Pilot will only be
made available to customers once it has gone through Volvo Cars’ rigorous
verification and testing protocol. This includes validation of the technology
as safe for use on highways in a number of varying conditions.
As part of this verification process, Volvo
Cars is already testing autonomous driving functionalities on roads in Sweden
together with Zenseact, and collecting data across Europe and the US. By the
middle of this year, the company intends to begin testing on roads in
California*, where the climate, traffic conditions and regulatory framework
provide a favourable environment for the introduction of autonomous driving.
“Delivering a new safety standard
for the industry requires a level of rigorous testing and verification that
will expand globally,” said Ödgärd Anderson, CEO of Zenseact. “Zenseact AD software plays a key role in
this new standard and in the journey towards zero collisions.”
Once it has been verified as safe and all
necessary approvals have been secured, the company’s ambition is to introduce
Ride Pilot in California first, before gradually rolling out in other markets
and regions around the globe.
By using Ride Pilot, drivers will be able
to free up time while driving, and spend it on secondary activities like
reading, writing, working or socialising. The feature can also help drivers
arrive at their destination rested and recharged, by reducing the mental strain
that may come with driving, especially in traffic jams or heavy traffic.
The name ‘Ride Pilot’ implies what the driver
can expect: when the car is driving on its own, Volvo Cars takes responsibility
for the driving, offering the driver comfort and peace of mind.
Luminar’s LiDAR sensor will complement five
radars, eight cameras and sixteen ultrasonic sensors in Volvo Cars’ upcoming
fully electric SUV. This standard sensor set-up provides excellent vision and
perception reliability. Together with continuous, over-the-air software
rollouts the system will ensure full redundancy and enable Volvo Cars to
achieve safe autonomous driving with Ride Pilot.
“Luminar’s vision is to
democratize next-generation safety and autonomy, and we’re already seeing this
become a reality with the first vehicle launching on Volvo’s new platform” said Austin Russell,
Founder and CEO. “With Luminar as standard on every vehicle,
their next SUV has the opportunity to be the safest vehicle on the road.”
*Pending necessary approvals.