Volvo Cars to Launch UK’s Largest and Most Ambitious Autonomous Driving Trial
Volvo Cars to Launch UK’s Largest and Most Ambitious Autonomous Driving Trial
RICHMOND HILL, ON. (April 28th, 2016.) Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, is to begin the UK’s most ambitious autonomous driving trial next year to speed up the introduction of a technology that promises to massively reduce car accidents as well as free up congested roads and save drivers valuable time.
“Autonomous driving represents a leap forward in car safety,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive. “The sooner AD cars are on the roads, the sooner lives will start being saved.”
Volvo’s UK-based test will be called ‘Drive Me London’ and will differentiate itself from other AD programs by using real families driving AD cars on public roads.
Volvo will source its data from these everyday users and use this data to develop AD cars that are suitable for real world driving conditions, rather than the more unrealistic conditions found on test tracks. Thatcham Research will be providing the technical data analysis and any professional test drivers needed as part of the trial.
Drive Me London will begin in early 2017 with a limited number of semi-autonomous driving cars and expand in 2018 to include up to 100 AD cars, making it the largest and most extensive AD testing program on Britain’s streets.
About Volvo Car Canada
Volvo Car Canada Ltd. is part of the Volvo Car Group of Gothenburg, Sweden. The company provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to the 36 Volvo automobile retailers across the country. The S60, S80, V60, XC60 & XC90 are among vehicles that have been awarded the prestigious new Top Safety Pick+ by IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). Volvo Cars is committed to Vision 2020, our goal that no one shall be killed or seriously injured in a Volvo by the year 2020.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 503,127 in 2015 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.
As of December 2014, Volvo Cars had over 25,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium) and Chengdu (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).