First Volvo XC90 for Volvo’s Drive Me autonomous driving experiment built in Torslanda

The first Volvo XC90 joining Volvo’s autonomous driving experiment, Drive Me, has been built in Sweden before heading for a real family for the trials.

Volvo has made a big deal of having no deaths or serious injuries in a new Volvo by 2020, and frankly the only way that is possible is by taking control of driving away from us.

So Volvo are busy embarking in an extensive set of driving experiments they’re calling ‘Drive Me’ which will put in the hands of real drivers in fleets of XC90s fitted out with Volvo’s latest and greatest autonomous driving kit.

But unlike just about every other car maker – and non-car makers like Google and Uber – who are throwing billions at autonomous driving technology, Volvo is developing its technology to be ready for the real world by trialling it with real drivers and real families, not engineers behind the wheel.

The initial Drive Me trials in Gothenburg will see the XC90 fleet – which already has Volvo’s Pilot Assist – get proper hand off and feet off capability in special autonomous drive zones round Gothenburg using what Volvo are calling the “Autonomous Driving Brain”.

Volvo will collect feedback from the cars, and the drivers, as it aims to refine the technology to emulate the human driver (without the mistakes) ahead of fully autonomous cars going on sale in the next five years.

Erik Coelingh, Volvo’s Technical Lead, said:

This is an important milestone for the Drive Me project.

Customers look at their cars differently than us engineers, so we are looking forward to learn how they use these cars in their daily lives and what feedback they will give us.

Further Drive ME trials are planned – including one in London starting next year – and Volvo are covering as many bases as they can with AD technology, with deals with Uber on AD cars and a joint venture with Autoliv also part of their strategy.