Volvo, Uber to Work in Tandem on Autonomous Vehicle
CARS.COM — A new partnership between Volvo and Uber signals the evolution of autonomous driving. The Swedish automaker and San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant announced today that they will join forces to create a “base vehicle” that will serve as the platform for each company to then develop its own autonomous driving systems.
Related: Ford Commits to Fully Autonomous Ride-Sharing Vehicles by 2021
According to Volvo, the combined $300 million agreement calls for the automaker to manufacture the base vehicles, which will then be purchased by Uber for its ride-hailing operations. The vehicles reportedly will incorporate cutting-edge autonomous technologies for fully self-driving capabilities.
The companies will then branch off — autonomously, if you will — using the jointly developed vehicles as a starting point.
“This will involve Uber adding its own self-developed autonomous driving systems to the Volvo base vehicle,” Volvo said in a statement. “Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of its own autonomous car strategy, which will involve fully autonomous driving.”
The automaker said both companies view the joint venture as the start of a longer-term “industrial partnership.” Engineers from both companies will team up in the development process to build upon the automaker’s existing Scalable Product Architecture vehicle platform. For Volvo, the partnership will help move it closer to its goal of zero fatalities in its vehicles by 2020.
In tandem with this news, Bloomberg today reported that Uber will begin offering rides in fully autonomous Volvo XC90 SUVs in downtown Pittsburgh to customers who choose to do so starting later this month. The fleet — which will number 100 cars by year’s end — initially will be supervised by humans in the driver’s seat, Bloomberg said.
Automaker-Silicon Valley partnerships are increasingly common of late. In July, Volvo vowed that it would have a fully self-driving car on the road by 2021, an ambitious timetable announced that same month by BMW, which is partnering with Intel and camera-chip and software maker Mobileye. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, meanwhile, has partnered with Google on a self-driving Pacifica minivan, and has been in talks with Uber and Amazon on other partnerships. And in April, Volvo, Ford, Google, Uber and Lyft formed a self-driving car coalition to work with government policymakers to advance the interests of autonomous vehicles.
