Volvo Autonomous Drive Trials hit the UK with ‘Drive Me London’
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Volvo is extending its Autonomous Drive trials to the UK in 2017, with the ‘Drive Me London’ trial expected to put up to 100 cars on London’s roads.
But it’s a big step from keeping a car in clearly defined lanes in a traffic jam or on a motorway to letting the car truly drive itself, so Volvo are busy rolling out autonomous driving trials around the world to get feedback and data to help them develop the technology to perfection. Which as Volvo have stated they will accept insurance liability for crashes involving AD cars is somewhat important.
We’ve already seen Volvo announce AD trials in Sweden and China, but now it’s the turn of the UK to get a big AD trial with new ‘Drive Me London’ trials starting in 2017.
Volvo say the UK trials will be different because they will use real families driving Volvos on public roads, with Volvo gathering data from their outings and Thatcham Research providing technical data analysis and any pro drivers the trials need.
Peter Shaw, Thatcham Research’s CEO, said:
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.
Without doubt, crash frequency will also dramatically reduce…NHTSA predicts that by 2035, as a result of autonomous and connected cars, crashes will be reduced by 80%. Additionally, if a crash unfortunately can’t be avoided, then the impact speed will also drop as a result of the system’s performance – reducing the severity of the crash.
The Drive Me London trials will start in early 2017 with a limited number of Volvos on London’s roads, but by 2018 Volvo expect there to be up to 100 AD cars busy gathering data and feedback.
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