Swedish carmaker Volvo said that as a pilot project, it will release 100 self-driving cars on public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
"Autonomous vehicles are an integrated part of Volvo Cars' as well as the Swedish government's vision of zero traffic fatalities. This public pilot represents an important step towards this goal," said Hakan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Group. "It will give us an insight into the technological challenges at the same time as we get valuable feedback from real customers driving on public roads."
Volvo also announced that the project "Drive Me - Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility" is a joint initiative of Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg.
One of the key aims of the Drive Me project is to understand the societal benefits of autonomous driving.
"Our aim is for the car to be able to handle all possible traffic scenarios by itself, including leaving the traffic flow and finding a safe 'harbour' if the driver for any reason is unable to regain control," said Erik Coelingh, technical specialist at Volvo Car Group.
The Drive Me project will also enable Volvo and its partners to understand the required infrastructure for self-driving cars. The project will also provide other details such as typical traffic situations suitable for autonomous vehicles, customers' confidence in autonomous vehicles and how surrounding drivers interact efficiently with an autonomous car on the road.
The project is expected to start sometime in 2014 and the company is hoping to release self-driving cars to consumers by 2017.
Volvo also says that an autonomous car is meant to handle all driving functions a driver requires, apart from some specific and tricky functions. Moreover, the self-driving car will also have the ability to self-park without the need of a driver in the car. The company said the first autonomous driving system will be integrated in the XC90 model.
The self-driving project may position Volvo Cars and Sweden as leaders in the making of futuristic, autonomous cars.
