The company, which has been testing sensor-equipped autonomous trucks (pictured above), said its mission is to improve highway safety and trucking efficiency.
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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said: “Over one million people die in vehicle accidents every year”. This is a $300 million project that will see Volvo developing and producing the driverless models, which will be subsequently acquired by Uber for use in its ride-sharing fleet. “And partnership is crucial to our self-driving strategy because Uber has no experience making cars”, said Kalanick.
In a world first the Uber taxi company will be using Volvo XC90 special vehicles that are autonomous, meaning taxi drivers could be out of work soon.
Volvo will design the base vehicle, which will also be used for the Swedish brand’s own developments in autonomous driving and Uber the systems necessary to control it. Google has been testing self-driving cars on public roads since 2009 but has never offered large-scale rides to the public.
“We’ve got to be laser-focused on getting this to market, because it’s not a side project for us”, he said. “This alliance places Volvo at the heart of the current technological revolution in the automotive industry”, adds Volvo Cars president and CEO Håkan Samuelsson.
In conclusion, Kalanick tells Bloomberg, “If Uber wants to catch up to Google and be the leader in autonomy, we have to have the best minds”.
Rides in the Uber’s driverless cars will be free at the beginning, but they also can not be specifically requested – instead, they will deploy at random through the app’s normal ride request function.
Uber stressed the safety record of Volvo cars and cited figures on the number of traffic fatalities, saying that autonomous vehicles could severely decrease these dangers.
Following Ford’s announcement that the company will mass produce automated cars by 2021, Uber has jumped in and somewhat stole the limelight.
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Uber-branded test cars have been on Pittsburgh roads for several months. Kalanick cited statistics showing that some 90 percent of the 1 million people killed in collisions every year are caused by human error.
