Family matters

Home life helps help Volvo develop self-driving cars

Volvo tests self-drive at home

Swedish families are turning test pilot as Volvo takes to the public roads of the company’s home base of Gothenburg. The families will feed back their impressions to the company’s engineers.

According to Volvo, the first two families, the Hains and the Simonovskis from the Gothenburg area, have 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. Drive Me will involve real customers testing the different stages of driver assisted and eventually fully autonomous technology. The “test pilots” will be monitored as to their everyday use and interaction with the car, as they drive to work, take the kids to school or go shopping for groceries.

Volvo plans to have a fully autonomous car commercially available by 2021. The company says that the data derived from Drive Me will form an important part of autonomous-drive development.

“It feels great to be a part of this project,” says Alex Hain, 45.

“We get the chance to be part of developing technology that will one day save lives.”

“Drive Me is an important research project for Volvo Cars,” says 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. In addition to that, though, they will be under the scrutiny of a battery of cameras and sensors that will be monitoring their behaviour – and the car’s surroundings.

At first, the families will keep their hands on the steering wheel and will supervise the driving at all times. As time goes on, Volvo says, 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,” the company says.