Volvo To Take Part In Driverless Car Trials In Australia
ADELAIDE, Australia, July 22 (UPI) — The Australian government announced that demonstrations of driverless cars will take place in Adelaide in November.
Swedish automaker Volvo will be presenting a driverless XC90 SUV, equipped with a technology it calls “intellisafe assist.” The car will make use of various functions such as a lane-keeping aid, distance alert and speed limiter function in order to be operated hands-free in a controlled environment.
The trials will take place at the same time as the Driverless Vehicle Conference from Nov. 7 to 8. Trent Victor, one of Volvo’s employees overseeing crash avoidance, will also speak at the conference. Victor has filed more than 20 patents and published more than 60 papers showing the application of behavioral science data to the study of crash avoidance.
Volvo’s plan is to have more than 100 autonomous vehicles on the road in its homeland of Sweden by 2017. The company believes that the autonomous technology will deliver benefits including better safety in traffic, enhanced fuel economy, less congestion and an opportunity to better construct public infrastructure.
Road safety research agency ARRB Group will partner with the Royal Automobile Association (RAA) of South Australia to host the event alongside Flinders University and telephone company Telstra. ARRB Group managing director Gerard Waldron says the trials in Adelaide will be the first of many throughout the country. RAA public affairs general manager Penny Gale expects all cars in 2020 to have some degree of autonomous driving ability.
Volvo joins other automakers that will produce autonomous vehicles in the near future. Audi seeks to have a driverless A8 limousine by 2017, while Nissan seeks to sell driverless cars by 2019 and Ford by 2020. Together, these conventional car manufacturers may face stiff competition from Google, which has invested hundreds of millions into its autonomous cars for many years.
Like Us on Facebook for more stories from GephardtDaily.com
