Volvo have road tested their first driverless cars in the Swedish city of Gothenburg.
The car manufacturer’s next step will be to unleash 100 self-driving cars onto the roads as part of its Drive Me project, an act which will make Gothenburg the first city to hold a large-scale trial of autonomous cars.
Autonomous drive – commuting
During their smaller-scale trial on public roads, Volvo’s self-controlled cars had to negotiate a variety of real-world situations, including motorway driving, queuing and city driving.
The cars themselves can offer the option to be driven, or to drive themselves, all through the push of a button on the steering wheel.
Speaking about the road tests, Erik Coelingh, a technical specialist at Volvo, said: “The test cars are now able to handle lane following, speed adaptation, and merging traffic all by themselves.
“This is an important step towards our aim that the final Drive Me cars will be able to drive the whole test route in highly autonomous mode.”
While in autopilot mode, the vehicles use radar, camera and laser technology to monitor the surrounding environment, ensuring that the car behaves as it should do.
A number of other car manufacturer are set to follow suit, with Nissan, Ford and Tesla all reported to be working on autonomous car models.
Google are also in the process of developing an autonomous car, and claim to have thousands of test miles under their belt.
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