Uber strikes deal for driverless Volvos

SAN FRANCISCO — No one knows what the future of selfdriving cars will look like, or how long it will take to get there. But every major player in the field is striking partnerships to be ready for the day when autonomous vehicles finally become mainstream.

That includes Uber, which Monday announced a new deal with Volvo. Under the agreement, Uber plans to purchase tens of thousands of self-driving Volvos once the technology is production-ready, putting the vehicles into its extensive ridehailing network.

“Everything we’re doing right now is about building autonomous vehicles at scale,” Jeff Miller, Uber’s head of automotive alliances, said. “We don’t know exactly how an autonomous world will look. But we know that we want to be the platform that’s at the centre of it, from a ridesharing standpoint.”

The deal is an extension of an agreement that Uber made with Volvo nearly two years ago, when the ride-hailing company started its research and development efforts in autonomous vehicles in earnest.

Uber has worked with thirdparty components manufacturers to build software and hardware for driverless cars, then worked closely with Volvo to outfit the automaker’s XC-90 vehicles with the technology.

But the new deal vastly increases the number of Volvo driverless cars that Uber can work with, showing the scope of its ambitions.

From automakers like Ford, Tesla and General Motors to technology companies like Google, Uber and Lyft, titans of the transportation industry are racing to gain an edge in a future of autonomous vehicles.

Each of the players has approached the issue differently. Automakers like GM and Ford have spent billions buying software-based startups to work on integrating driverless technology into their vehicles.

Tesla has long offered a hybrid version of self-driving software in its vehicles and recently debuted an autonomous commercial truck it expects to hit the road in the next few years.

Miller said Uber will own and operate fleets of its own vehicles purchased from partners like Volvo, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach, so it will also allow other self-driving vehicles on its network.