Volvo wants UK families to test its self driving cars

Relexnews

Following the launch of similar projects in Sweden and China, Volvo is getting ready to start testing autonomous cars on the UK’s roads.
When the trial begins in early 2017 it will represent one of the most ambitious tests of its kind on British roads and one that will involve real people with real transport needs. Volvo intends to give ordinary families based in London the keys to initially semi-autonomous cars in order to collect genuinely real-world data.
“Autonomous driving represents a leap forward in car safety,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars.
“The sooner AD cars are on the roads, the sooner lives will start being saved.”
Though the scope of Volvo’s test is huge — it plans to have up to 100 fully autonomous cars on the streets of London by the end of 2018 — it is by no means the first carmaker to look to real-world drivers in the UK to help develop autonomous driving technologies.
In February, Jaguar announced that it would be handing over the keys to a fleet of specially developed sedans to commuters in London for everyday use and for valuable data collection.
As well as testing existing active safety systems, Jaguar’s goal is to learn how drivers respond to real-life traffic issues, from emergency stops to congestion and use this behavior to inform how automated system should behave.
“Understanding how drivers react to a range of very dynamic and random situations in the real world is essential if we want drivers to embrace autonomous cars in the future,” said Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover.
Volvo’s Drive Me London study will focus on safety, congestion, pollution and time-saving and is being conducted in partnership with Thatcham Research the UK insurance industry’s independent research organisation.
“Vehicle manufacturers are predicting that highly autonomous vehicles, capable of allowing the driver to drop ‘out of the loop’ for certain sections of their journey, will be available from around 2021.