Swedish families with their daily drive experiences on the public roads of Gotheborg will help Volvo Cars engineers to develop the autonomous drive cars.
The first two families – the Hains and the Simonovskis – lives in Gothenburg area and received the SUV Volvo XC90 that they will use in the Drive Me project; while three more families will follow them early next year and other 100 people will be involved in the program in the next four years.
The families will offer a very important contribution to Drive Me project monitoring and interacting with the engineers about the autonomous drive cars in everyday use like to drive to work, to go with kids to the school or to go to shopping.
The Volvo Cars plans is offer a fully autonomouos drive cars commercially available by 2021.
It feels great to be a part of this project – said Alex Hain, 45 years old. We get the chance to be part of developing technology that will one day save lives.
The interaction with a families will allow to Volvo Cars to develop all devices included in the autonomous drive cars in normal traffic situations.
Drive Me is an important research project for Volvo Cars – said Henrik Green, Senior Vice President for the company’s R&D department. We expect to learn a lot from engaging these families and will use their experiences to shape the development of our autonomous driving technology, so that by 2021 we can offer our customers a fully autonomous car.
Both families have received their Volvo XC90 powered by latest drive assistance technology and array of cameras and sensors to monitor the car and provide the car with sorroundings information.
During the first steps, the families will keep their hands on the steering wheel and supervise the drive all time when they using e car, but all participants in the Drive Me project will lbe introduced to the more advanced assisted driving cars and will have a special training in autonomous drive technology.
Even then, testing these more advanced cars will initially take place in controlled environments with supervision from a Volvo Cars safety expert, but Volvo declared that any new technology will ever be introduced if there is any question over its safety.
This means Volvo Cars continues to develop autonomous cars with the same care and thoroughness that has helped it establish its position as the builder of some of the world’s safest cars.
The Hain family comprises Alex and Paula (45 years old), and their daughters Filippa (17) and Smilla (14). The Hains were the first people chosen to take part in Drive Me earlier this year.
They are now joined by Sasko Simonovski (44) and his wife Anna (41), and their children Elin (10) and Villiam (8).
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