In the EX90, Volvo Cars is both introducing and standardizing a DUS, which combines a dual camera interior monitoring system with a capacitive steering wheel. Powered by Smart Eye’s advanced AI algorithms, which are capable of analyzing driver eye, face, head, and body movements, the system enables a deeper understanding on the state of all vehicle occupants, with an emphasis on the driver. Here, the system monitors the driver’s eye patterns for any signs that they are not entirely concentrated on the driving task.

The integration of Smart Eye’s system will allow the Volvo EX90 to warn the driver, and act when necessary, while remaining non-intrusive if the driver does not need assistance.

As a part of this implementation, V.A.S. will deliver a complete autonomous transport solution that includes vehicles, hardware, software, control room, repair and maintenance and training. The solution will be based on a virtual driver developed in-house by V.A.S. as well as the premium truck range offered by Volvo Trucks. In addition, V.A.S. will provide a wheel loader for the loading operation. Boliden will likewise adapt its operations to prepare the site for its implementation of V.A.S.’s self-driving trucks and build the necessary infrastructure to support them.

Both companies expect the project to commence in 2023, beginning with a testing and development phase followed by implementation and fully autonomous operations.

The OEM had previously shared a 86.5% stake in the company with ECARX, from who it acquired the remaining stake from. Zenseact will now become a fully owned Volvo Cars subsidiary, leading development of safety, ADAS, and autonomous technologies for new Volvo and Polestar vehicles. While working closely with the OEM, Zenseact itself will remain and operate as a standalone company.

The ongoing collaboration discussions between Zenseact and ECARX will continue as planned. Volvo’s acquisition of the remaining stake in Zenseact was completed on December 31.

ECARX will take a 15 per cent shareholding in Zenseact and make a strategic investment in the company’s continued development of leading and safe AD and safety technologies. Building on Zenseact’s global software platform, the companies also plan to collaborate on AD for the Chinese market.

The strategic investment and planned collaboration with ECARX strengthen Zenseact’s presence in China, the world’s largest automotive market, allowing it to accelerate technology deployment in China across the Geely group of brands and beyond.

Zenseact’s first delivery will be technology for next generation Volvo and Polestar cars, such as active safety features and an unsupervised AD function for highways.

The strategic investment allows Zenseact to capitalise on the accelerating demand for AD systems in China. It is also working with LiDAR technology firm Luminar to commercialise a complete AD offering.

This planned collaboration between Volvo Cars and ECARX follows a separate recent planned tie-up between the companies in infotainment. Financial terms of ECARX’s investment in Zenseact have not been disclosed.

Another use case for processing this data in real-time is the development of autonomous driving features. Volvo says that these features, which similarly work to enhance user safety, would be validated by their engineers much quicker through user data than conventional AV testing.

Updates to existing systems and new features can quickly be rolled out over-the-air, increasing the safety of Volvo’s cars over their lifetime. The first car to benefit from the automaker’s new approach to safety development will be their forthcoming all-electric SUV, which is set to feature Luminar’s LiDAR sensor.

To process masses of user data in real time, Volvo Cars and its autonomous driving division, Zenseact, are investing in a data factory that will be capable of containing over 200 pebibytes (225 million gigabytes) of data within the next few years. This factory will leverage AI technology to process these large datasets quickly and efficiently. Customers will be able to choose whether they want to have this data collected. Likewise, this data will be aggregated with adequate safeguards for customer privacy.

The use of real-time data is part of Volvo Cars’ long-term strategy to reduce the number of road accidents to zero. The OEM hopes to achieve this by equipping its cars with several sensors, and continuously enhancing its safety and automated driving systems.

Volvo aims to develop these systems to the point where the car’s hardware and software capabilities can autonomously take over from the driver. For instance, if they do not respond in life-threatening situations after repeated warnings.

The fully electric successor to Volvo Cars’ XC90, to be revealed in 2022, will come with state-of-the-art sensors, including LiDAR technology developed by Luminar and an autonomous driving computer powered by the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip, as standard.

By combining this state-of-the-art hardware with Volvo, Zenseact and Luminar software for the next generation of its well-established collision avoidance technology, Volvo Cars aims to reduce fatalities and accidents as a whole with this new safety package.

With the new safety package, Volvo Cars aims to reduce collisions and the reduction rate is anticipated to accelerate over time via over-the-air software updates. The new technologies are also designed to specifically address those traffic situations which result in a large portion of remaining severe injuries and fatalities found today.

Once introduced, the technology is expected to mature over time, becoming more capable and allowing the car to assist and improve the capabilities of a human driver in safety critical situations. Whereas previous generations of technology largely relied on warning the driver for potential immediate threats, this new safety technology will over time increasingly intervene as needed to prevent collisions.

While saving lives and preventing injury remains the company’s first priority, Volvo Cars also sees a potential added benefit of lower insurance costs as car crashes involving Volvo cars become increasingly rare. A Care package, standard on all fully electric Volvo cars, includes insurance coverage where available.

Beyond the sensor suite and AI computing performance, Volvo’s forthcoming flagship model will also come with back-up systems for key functions such as steering and braking that make it hardware ready for safe, unsupervised autonomous driving once available.

These back-up systems alongside LiDAR, compute and software will enable the Highway Pilot functionality, developed in-house together with Volvo Cars’ autonomous driving software development company Zenseact. An autonomous driving feature for use on motorways, the optional Highway Pilot will be activated for customers when verified safe and legally allowed for individual geographic locations and conditions.

Earlier this year, Volvo Cars announced it will use NVIDIA technology to centralise computing. The core computer and autonomous drive computer both powered by NVIDIA technology allow its cars to become safer, more personal, and more sustainable over time through over the air updates, while also providing it with the computing power required for vision and LiDAR processing.

The new safety technology illustrates Volvo Cars’ belief in working together with technology leaders such as Luminar, NVIDIA and Zenseact as it strives to deliver the best and safest possible cars to its customers. These and other partnerships provide Volvo Cars with the technology base to be one of the fastest-moving companies in a rapidly transforming industry.

Volvo Cars will provide DiDi with XC90 cars equipped with necessary backup systems for functions such as steering and braking, and collaborate with DiDi Autonomous Driving to integrate the additional software and hardware required to make it fully ready for autonomous drive.

The XC90 cars will be the first to integrate DiDi Gemini, DiDi Autonomous Driving’s new self-driving hardware platform and are intended to be deployed for ride-hailing in DiDi’s network in the future.

The agreement reinforces Volvo Cars’ position as a provider of cars and the partner of choice for self-driving fleets, building on its reputation as a global leader in automotive safety.

The built-in backup systems and safety features on the XC90s, combined with DiDi Autonomous Driving’s advanced self-driving system, will eventually allow the cars to operate without safety drivers in robotaxi services.

Building on the agreement, Volvo Cars and DiDi Autonomous Driving look to build a long-term partnership as DiDi continues to expand its autonomous test fleets across China and the US and scales up its commercial robotaxi operations.

As the world’s leading shared mobility technology platform, DiDi uses its deep expertise in network operation and large bank of real-world driving data to develop commercial autonomous transportation services by collaborating with the world’s premium car makers.

In 2020, Volvo Cars provided DiDi with Volvo XC60s for use in Shanghai’s first pilot robotaxi programme. People in certain areas of Shanghai could book trips by robotaxi in the DiDi app and be driven autonomously, while the cars were monitored by a safety driver and engineer.

Volvo Cars’ partner-of-choice ambition comes as ride-hailing firms around the globe seek to expand their fleets with fully autonomous cars in a safe and responsible way. The reputation of Volvo Cars as a global leader in automotive safety is a strong asset as it pursues this ambition.

NVIDIA’s design-win pipeline for NVIDIA DRIVE now totals more than $8 billion over the next six years, reflecting a growing range of next-generation cars, trucks, robotaxis and new energy vehicles (NEVs).

Volvo Cars and NVIDIA Extend Collaboration
Volvo Cars announced that it will use NVIDIA DRIVE Orin to power the autonomous driving computer in its next-generation cars, extending the companies’ deep collaboration over the last few years. The first car featuring DRIVE Orin technology, the next-generation Volvo XC90, is planned to be revealed next year.

NVIDIA DRIVE Orin’s high-performance, energy-efficient compute will work together with software developed in-house by Volvo Cars and Zenseact (Volvo Cars’ autonomous driving software development company), an advanced sensor suite that includes lidar as well as steering and braking backup systems. As a result, the global automaker’s fleet of intelligent vehicles will be safer, more personal and sustainable — along with being richly programmable and perpetually upgradable via over-the-air software updates designed to make Volvo Cars’ next-gen vehicles better every day.

Robotaxis Turn to DRIVE

The world is moving trillions of miles a year, and more and more of these miles are being delivered as a service, thanks to the robotaxi companies developing on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform.

Zoox recently unveiled its purpose-built robotaxi designed for everyday urban mobility. The vehicle is powered by NVIDIA DRIVE and is one of the first robotaxis featuring bi-directional capabilities, putting the next generation of intelligent transportation into motion.

DiDi, China’s leading mobility-as-a-service provider, has also announced it is adopting NVIDIA DRIVE for its entire autonomous driving test fleet. These robotaxi companies join others already developing on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform, including Pony.ai and Auto X.

Sparking the NEV Revolution
Additionally, a growing number of automotive startups and EV brands have in recent months announced plans to build software-defined vehicles using NVIDIA DRIVE Orin to deliver continuously improving AI capabilities, beginning as early as next year. They include:

• SAIC, China’s largest automaker, which is readying two new EV brands packed with advanced AI features. The R Auto family of next-gen vehicles will feature the R-Tech advanced intelligent assistant, powered by NVIDIA DRIVE Orin, to run perception, sensor fusion and prediction for automated driving features in real time. Its ultra-premium IM brand — a joint venture with Alibaba — will deliver long-range EVs powered by NVIDIA DRIVE Orin, including a sedan and SUV with autonomous parking and other automated driving features. Orders are starting now for the sedan, with the SUV following in 2022.
• Faraday Future, a global intelligent mobility company, which is using NVIDIA DRIVE Orin in its flagship ultra-luxury FF 91 EV to achieve advanced highway autonomous driving capabilities and advanced parking and summon features when it goes on sale in 2022. Its next-generation FF 71 and FF 81 vehicles, which will be available in 2023 and 2024, respectively, will also be powered by NVIDIA DRIVE Orin.
• Vietnam’s leading automaker, VinFast, which is starting mass production of its VF e34, VF e35 and VF e36 intelligent EVs with level 2-3 autonomous capabilities. It plans to upgrade these premium EV models from NVIDIA DRIVE Xavier to NVIDIA DRIVE Orin.
• Nio, which has announced that its ET7 sedan will offer advanced automated driving capabilities featuring a supercomputer, dubbed Adam, powered by four NVIDIA DRIVE Orin SoCs totaling 1,000 TOPS. The ET7 will start to ship in China in 2022.
• Li Auto, which is developing next-gen EVs using NVIDIA DRIVE Orin with plans to ship in 2022. The China carmaker’s new EVs are being developed in collaboration with tier-1 supplier Desay SV and feature advanced autonomous driving features and an extended battery range.
• Xpeng, which is already putting its advanced driving technology on the road with the P7 sedan. Last month, the automaker completed a record-setting, six-day cross-country autonomous drive with a fleet of P7 vehicles powered by NVIDIA DRIVE Xavier. Xpeng plans to upgrade to NVIDIA DRIVE Orin in 2022.

Trucks to Hit the Road with NVIDIA DRIVE
The trucking industry is plagued by a severe driver shortage amid growing demand for e-commerce goods. The NVIDIA DRIVE platform helps deliver safe, fully autonomous trucks that can operate in geo-fenced areas, public roads and highways.

Navistar is partnering with TuSimple to build self-driving trucks designed from the ground up for level 4 autonomous operation, powered by NVIDIA DRIVE. The U.S. maker’s intelligent trucks are targeted for production by 2024.

China’s largest truck maker, FAW, is working with Plus to develop autonomous trucks on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform. These trucks will start production later this year and will upgrade to Orin in 2022.

Volvo Autonomous Solutions, part of Volvo Group, is also using the end-to-end NVIDIA DRIVE platform for the development of autonomous transport solutions and next-generation level 4 trucks.

This partnership will center on the integration of the Aurora Driver into Volvo’s on-highway trucks and the development of Transport as a Service solutions. These solutions build on Volvo’s leading products and track record within safety and Aurora’s deep expertise in the development of self-driving systems. 

Luminar’s new product suite, Sentinel, is the first full-stack autonomous solution for series production in the industry. It deeply integrates Zenseact’s OnePilot autonomous driving software solution alongside Luminar’s Iris lidar, perception software, and other components as a foundation, enabling every automaker to offer Highway Autonomy and Proactive Safety^TM capabilities on their production vehicles. While the wider autonomous industry largely focuses on robo-taxi applications, Luminar and Zenseact collectively remain focused on delivering systems into series production vehicles.

Zenseact is responsible for delivering its OnePilot software and Luminar’s perception software to Volvo Cars, while Luminar is responsible for providing the holistic Sentinel solution to other automakers.

Sentinel will equip global automakers with two core functionalities – Proactive Safety^TM and hands-off, eyes-off Highway Autonomy:

Proactive Safety: For the first time, vehicles can proactively avoid collisions with evasive maneuvers, reducing accident rates by up to seven times. The most advanced camera-based ADAS systems today will attempt to reactively avoid collisions only in ideal conditions, in a straight line, and generally after the driver does not respond.

Highway autonomy: Hands-free, eyes-free true autonomous driving on highways – as opposed to the most advanced ADAS systems today, which require constant driver attention and system overrides at a moment’s notice, defeating the main purpose of autonomy – to recover the driver’s time and substantially improve vehicle safety.

Sentinel is powered in part by Zenseact’s OnePilot software, which helps provide a single user experience throughout the user’s journey. OnePilot continuously assesses the surroundings to enable autonomous highway driving. OnePilot also provides the driver with useful information and warnings and may intervene by overriding controls to make sure the user has a safe journey.

Sentinel also incorporates over-the-air updates to expand the operating domain of autonomy and further improve safety of vehicles over time.

Following a detailed review of combination options, Volvo Cars and Geely Auto have concluded they can secure new growth opportunities in their respective markets and meet evolving industry challenges through deeper cooperation, while preserving their existing separate corporate structures.

Through the collaboration, the two companies will focus on the development and sourcing of next-generation technologies, from connectivity and autonomous drive to car sharing and electrification. They are planning to share and jointly source batteries, electric motors and connectivity solutions that will generate valuable synergies. This will include the joint development of a world-leading autonomous driving (AD) solution under the lead of Zenseact, Volvo Cars AD software development company.

The two companies, which are planning to share the new SEA and SPA2 electric architectures among their brands, have launched combined efforts to drive speed and efficiencies in the development of hardware and software for the next-generation world-leading modular EV architectures. Intended sharing of platforms and architectures between the companies will drive additional synergies and allow for an expansion of product portfolios across the Volvo Cars, Geely, Lynk & Co and Polestar brands, and external partners.

Cirrus features raw data from Luminar’s high performance lidar sensors, which accurately detect objects ahead of the car out to 250 meters away. The dataset is intended to help advance research and refinement of self-driving software algorithms, in the interest of improved vehicle safety at highway speeds and in complex environments. Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has also been contributing effort to the project.

The core computer is based on NVIDIA’s DRIVE AGX Xavier technology and will allow Volvo Cars to implement an advanced computing platform for its new cars on the forthcoming Scalable Product Architecture 2 (SPA 2) vehicle platform. The first car with the new core computer will appear early next decade.

The new computing platform will use NVIDIA’s advances in AI as well as its computing power, allowing Volvo Cars to take considerable steps forward in implementing advanced driver support systems, energy management technology and in-car personalisation options.

The forthcoming SPA 2 vehicle architecture is the next generation of Volvo Cars SPA modular vehicle architecture, which forms the basis of all new 90 series and 60 series cars launched in recent years.

As part of the development of the 360c, Volvo Cars safety engineers decided to tackle this challenge of how to establish a safe means of communication between fully autonomous cars and other road users. Additionally, the focus was to create a universally applicable standard, so that other road users do not have to consider the make or brand of individual autonomous cars.

The 360c addresses this challenge with a system comprising external sounds, colours, visuals, movements, as well as combinations of these tools, to communicate the vehicle’s intentions to other road users. This means it is at all times clear what the car will do next.

Crucially, while the design of the 360c safety communication technology focuses on making the car indicate its own intentions to other road users, it will never issue directions or instructions to other road users.

 It presents four potential uses of autonomous driving vehicles – a sleeping environment, mobile office, living room and entertainment space – which all reimagine the way people travel.

Inside the sleeping environment, Volvo Cars’ safety engineers have also looked at the future of safety technology and how a different passenger positioning could influence safety. A special safety blanket included in the sleeping environment envisions a future restraining system that works just like the three-point safety belt, but is adjusted to people lying down while travelling.

The 360c also envisions a range of new potential customer groups for the company’s business and considers the possible implications for the future of city planning, infrastructure and modern society’s environmental footprint.

Source: Volvo Cars

Volvo Trucks North America has announced the successful on-highway demonstration of its truck platooning technology. The company has been working closely with FedEx and the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) to expand on-highway operations of Volvo’s Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) in the United States on N.C. 540, the Triangle Expressway. This marks the first public on-highway showcase of platooning technology between a major truck manufacturer and a transportation company in the U.S.

The “platoon” consisted of three trained, professional truck drivers in Volvo VNL tractors, each pulling double 28-foot trailers. Through CACC, a wireless vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology, the tractors and trailers remained in constant communication. The tractors and trailers traveled at speeds of up to 62 mph while keeping a time gap of 1.5 seconds, maintaining a closer distance than what is typical for on-highway tractors. Staged and unplanned vehicle cut-ins demonstrated how the technology handles common traffic situations.

Since April 2018, three Volvo VNL tractors have been paired with various combinations of FedEx trailers to simulate real-world routes and trailer loads while traveling on N.C. 540. The potential benefits of platooning that are being studied during this collaborative research include faster responses to hard braking while maintaining safety and fuel efficiency.

When trucks can drive closely behind one another, fuel efficiency is improved as a result of reduced drag. Drag accounts for up to 25 percent of a truck’s total fuel consumption, and the closer the trucks drive to each other, the greater the fuel-saving potential. Reducing the traveling distance between vehicles also allows for greater highway utilization, helping alleviate traffic congestion.

N.C. 540, due to its proximity to Volvo Trucks’ North American headquarters and its designation as a proving ground for advanced vehicle technology, is an excellent demonstration site for the Volvo platooning technology, providing invaluable insights for all parties involved in this process. N.C. 540 is one of 10 locations around the country that the U.S. Department of Transportation has designated for demonstrating advanced vehicle technologies, like platooning, through research initiatives such as this one.

Volvo Trucks and FedEx plan to continue developing the Volvo CACC technology on N.C. 540 into the foreseeable future with the goal of continuing to learn about the potential benefits offered by vehicle platooning. Additionally, this advanced testing will allow the participants to adapt to the technological and regulatory developments that will ultimately determine the commercial viability of platooning technology in the United States.

Source: Volvo

Volvo Cars has completed the first strategic investment via its newly-founded investment fund by taking a stake in Luminar, a start-up in the development of sensor technology for use in autonomous vehicles.

The investment in Luminar, based in Palo Alto, California, and Orlando, Florida, deepens Volvo Cars’ existing collaboration with the firm, which currently focuses on development and testing of its sensing technology on Volvo cars. LiDAR technology, which uses pulsed laser signals to detect objects, is a crucial element of creating safe autonomous vehicles.

The Volvo Cars Tech Fund was launched earlier this year and aims to invest in high potential technology start-ups around the globe. It focuses its investments on strategic technology trends that are transforming the industry, such as artificial intelligence, electrification, autonomous driving and digital mobility services.

Companies will benefit in a number of ways from participation by the Volvo Cars Tech Fund. Apart from the association with one of the world’s leading premium car makers, start-ups may gain the ability to validate their technologies and accelerate the pace of achieving product market fit.

Source: Volvo Cars

Volvo Cars has announced new financial and operational ambitions that will position the company as a leading player in the global automotive business by the middle of the next decade.

On the operational side, it expects to generate half of all sales annually from fully electric cars, one third of all cars sold to be autonomous driving cars and half of all cars it offers to customers from its subscription service.

Volvo Cars expects these initiatives to transform its connection to its customer base, with the aim to build a total of over 5 million direct consumer relationships by the middle of the next decade, creating new sources of recurring revenue. This will also offer the company far greater potential to develop connected and other services for customers.

Volvo Cars expects to benefit from lower procurement costs, shared development costs and economies of scale alongside Polestar, its premium performance electric car brand, and LYNK & CO, the new global car brand in which Volvo Cars owns a 30 per cent stake.

Source: Volvo

Volvo Buses and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have signed a cooperation agreement on a research and development program for autonomous electric buses. The program is part of the Land Transport Authority of Singapore’s drive to create new solutions for tomorrow’s sustainable public transport.

Singapore and its Land Transport Authority (LTA) are recognized for their focus on public transport and deployment of autonomous vehicles in the effort to create a sustainable city environment. Singapore has announced that self-driving buses will be deployed in several areas of the country by 2022.

For Volvo this will be the first autonomous application in public transportation. Volvo has already demonstrated the autonomous technology in mining, quarry and refuse collection operations.

The basis of the program consists of two all-electric 12-metre Volvo 7900 Electric buses, of the same type that Volvo Buses already delivers today. Volvo and NTU will build the autonomous driving solution on Volvo’s platform.

One of the autonomous electric buses in the program will be used on Singapore’s advanced new test facility for autonomous vehicles, CETRAN, which was inaugurated in November 2017. Here, NTU’s researchers will in a fenced-off area be able to test new functionality and study how the bus interacts with other road-users in various conditions.

• All-electric-powered, two-axle 12 metre long city bus with low floor. Quiet and emission-free operation and 80 % lower energy consumption compared to a corresponding diesel bus.
• The buses will be equipped with GPS along with LIDAR laser technology-based system for charting, positioning and scanning the area around the vehicle. Automatic regulation of steering, gear changing and speed.

The second bus will be used for tests in the bus depot in partnership with the public transport operator SMRT. The aim is that tomorrow’s autonomous buses should be able to charge their batteries, drive through the depots to the vehicle wash and park – entirely autonomously.

The cooperative program between Volvo Buses and NTU is now underway and will initially last for two years. The jointly developed autonomous electric buses will arrive into Singapore in the beginning of 2019.

Fast-charging stations based on the common OppCharge interface will be supplied by ABB. The OppCharge interface is very well suited for autonomous charging solutions in bus depots as well as in running traffic.

Source: Volvo Buses

Volvo Cars will from today start developing its autonomous drive cars with help from Swedish families who will test its cars on the public roads of Gothenburg and feed back their impressions to Volvo Cars engineers.

The first two families, the Hains and the Simonovskis from the Gothenburg area, have now received the Volvo XC90 premium SUVs with which they will support the Drive Me project. Three more families will follow early next year and over the next four years, up to 100 people will be involved in Drive Me.

Both families will contribute to Drive Me with invaluable data by allowing engineers at the company to monitor their everyday use and interaction with the car, as they drive to work, bring the kids to school or go shopping for groceries.

Volvo Cars plans to have a fully autonomous car commercially available by 2021 and the data derived from Drive Me will play a crucial role in the development of these autonomous cars.

“It feels great to be a part of this project,” said Alex Hain, 45 years old. “We get the chance to be part of developing technology that will one day save lives.”

Drive Me will involve real customers testing the different stages of driver assisted and eventually fully autonomous technology.

“Drive Me is an important research project for Volvo Cars,” said Henrik Green, Senior Vice President for the company’s R&D department. “We expect to learn a lot from engaging these families and will use their experiences to shape the development of our autonomous driving technology, so that by 2021 we can offer our customers a fully autonomous car.”

The Hains and the Simonovskis have received Volvo XC90s fitted with Volvo’s latest driver assistance technology as well as an array of cameras and sensors to monitor their behavior and provide the car with information on its surroundings.

During these first stages, the families will keep their hands on the steering wheel and supervise the driving at all times when using their cars. But, over time, all participants in the Drive Me project will gradually be introduced to more advanced assisted driving cars, after receiving special training.

Even then, testing these more advanced cars will initially take place in controlled environments with supervision from a Volvo Cars safety expert. No technology will ever be introduced if there is any question over its safety.

This means Volvo Cars continues to develop autonomous cars with the same care and thoroughness that has helped it establish its position as the builder of some of the world’s safest cars.

The Hain family comprises Alex and Paula (45 years old), and their daughters Filippa (17) and Smilla (14). The Hains were the first people chosen to take part in Drive Me earlier this year.

They are now joined by Sasko Simonovski (44) and his wife Anna (41), and their children Elin (10) and Villiam (8). Additional families will be added going forward as the project progresses.

Source: Volvo

Volvo Cars has signed a framework agreement with Uber, the ride sharing company, to sell tens of thousands of autonomous driving compatible base vehicles between 2019 and 2021.

The base vehicles are developed on Volvo Cars’ fully modular, in-house developed Scalable Product Architecture (SPA). SPA is one of the most advanced car architectures in the world and is currently used on Volvo Cars’ top-of-the-line 90 series cars as well as on the new XC60 midsize SUV.

The non-exclusive agreement enhances the strategic partnership between Volvo Cars and Uber announced in August 2016 and also marks a new chapter in the convergence of car makers and Silicon Valley-based technology companies.

Volvo Cars’ engineers have worked closely together with engineers from Uber to develop the XC90 premium SUVs that are to be supplied to Uber. The base vehicles incorporate all necessary safety, redundancy and core autonomous driving technologies that are required for Uber to add its own self-driving technology.

“We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Volvo,” said Jeff Miller, Head of Auto Alliances, Uber. “This new agreement puts us on a path towards mass produced self-driving vehicles at scale.”

At the same time as providing Uber with AD compatible cars, Volvo will use the same base vehicle in the development of its own independent autonomous car strategy, which is planned to culminate in the release of its first fully autonomous car in 2021.

Source: Volvo