Volvo Cars, the Swedish premium vehicle maker, and Uber, a leading ride-sharing company, have teamed up to develop the next generation of autonomous driving cars, the companies have announced.
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The two companies have signed an agreement to develop base vehicles that will be able to incorporate the latest developments in AD technologies, up to and including, fully autonomous driverless cars.
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s chief executive, said: “Over one million people die in auto accidents every year”.
In a separate development, Bloomberg Businessweek reported yesterday that through a partnership with Volvo Uber will begin deploying specially equipped Volvo XC90 sports utility vehicles to test self-driving technology with real-life Uber customers in Pittsburgh.
Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, said: “Volvo is a world leader in the development of active safety and possesses unrivalled safety credibility”. Uber will add its own self-developed autonomous driving systems to the Volvo base vehicle.
SPA is now used on Volvo Cars’ XC90 sports-utility vehicle, as well as the S90 sedan and V90 estate. Kalanick cited statistics showing that some 90 percent of the 1 million people killed in collisions every year are caused by human error.
“The alliance marks the beginning of what both companies view as a longer term industrial partnership”, said a Volvo press release. “By combining the capabilities of Uber and Volvo we will get to the future faster, together”.
Levandowski will lead “combined self-driving efforts reporting directly to me – across personal transportation, delivery and trucking”, Kalanick said, noting that “when it comes to this advanced technology stack, Otto plus Uber is a dream team” and that “we now have one of the strongest autonomous engineering groups in the world”.
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Just months after its public launch, the self-driving truck startup Otto has been purchased by the ride-hailing giant Uber for an undisclosed amount. The PR fallout from the crash of a semi-autonomous Tesla back in May has unsettled many.
