Don't like driving? Volvo is fulfilling your sci-tech fantasy

Swedish automobile giant Volvo may become the first to fulfill one of our major sci-tech fantasies – the fully autonomous, self-driving cars.

In the last few years, other corporate giants have been seriously pursuing autonomous driving technology.

The self-driving cars are equipped with censors to detect objects in all directions, including pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. The software processes the information to help the car safely navigate the road. The software also classifies objects based on their size, shape and movement pattern. In this way, it can classify the speed of each moving object in every direction, be it a pedestrian, a cyclist or another car user. 

Apple has been testing self-driving technology for several years, but recently shuttered parts of this futuristic project. 

Six years ago, Google ventured into self-driving cars with gusto. On the self-driving car project, Google’s official website says, “We’ve made a lot of progress with our self-driving technology over the past six years, and we’re still learning. Every day we head out onto public streets so we can keep challenging and refining our software.”

Meanwhile, other big tech companies are seeing a huge market in self-driving cars, and are moving ahead with competing efforts. 

Among these automobile giants, Volvo has shifted its self-driving cars into top gear. 

Volvo’s Drive Me is the world's most ambitious autonomous driving project. The Swede manufacturer now plans to give its self-driving cars to selected users in China, to test them for road experience.

This means real-world driving conditions with real-world drivers behind the wheel. 

Drive Me has come after two years of research, testing and development by Volvo in the carefully controlled environment of Gothenburg in Sweden. The cars are now ready for road use. 

Volvo calls the real-life experience the “toughest test” for self-driving cars. On real-life road use, the Volvo website says “we need to understand how human drivers react to, and interact with self-driving cars".

Hence, the human experience of Drive Me is a hugely important milestone. Users interact with cars differently, and can give valuable inputs to automobile engineers. Volvo says it wants to learn from the road experience of Drive Me, and the feedback it receives from users. 

The real-life, road testing of Drive Me will begin in China with about 100 specially equipped cars. This is the most advanced autonomous driving experience to be conducted in the country. 

The Swede auto giant has chosen China for the Drive Me road experience since the country is the world's largest single market for new vehicles. Next year, Volvo plans to give these cars to users in London for real-life testing. 

Volvo believes Drive Me will make a huge difference to road safety and will save lives since an alarming percentage of automobile mishaps take place on account of human error. 

In 2012, Volvo had partnered with the Chinese government to establish a dedicated traffic safety research centre. Its purpose was to study the impact of millions of cars on Chinese roads, in terms of accidents and congestion. Autonomous cars can significantly cut congestion and pollution levels. 

According to a news report, Volvo’s new flagship S90 sedan will be the first car to go on sale in the US with a semi-autonomous highway pilot system as standard equipment. 

But, introducing these cars for regular use is not a question of focusing on current generation technologies alone. Global use will not depend on car technology, or about how fast such cutting-edge technologies can be developed and tested in a laboratory or simulated conditions.

These technologies cannot be integrated into real-world use until legislative issues are addressed. The legislative consent of any nation is essential for the authorised use of a self-driving car, be it China, Europe or the US. 

Volvo officials admit that for these cars to be put to road use, they need the right rules and the right laws. The car industry cannot handle these issues. They must be addressed at government level. 

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