Autonomous cars, those without drivers, are soon to hit the road as Volvo moves to launch the world’s first fleet of self-driving city vehicles.
The Swedish car maker is to provide 100 of them for a two-year project in Gothenburg, backed by the Swedish government from January 2017.
But already five prototype Volvos are on public roads to test the technology. Although there is someone always in the driver’s seat, they do not need to operate the steering wheel, gears or pedals.
Volvo says that removing the human element will allow cars to operate closer together in safety, making better use of road space and improving traffic flow.
Instead, the cars drive themselves by advanced technologies and smart computer programming. They operate through a combination of cameras, laser and radar sensors around the car as well as GPS map data, a cloud connection and a link to a local traffic control centre.
Drivers, then, can occupy themselves with other projects, such as reading or checking emails.
Volvo hopes self-drive technology vehicles will be in production before the end of the decade. Meanwhile, it continues to towards creating a car that can’t physically crash.
