Volvo Cars’ Unsupervised Autonomous Driving, The ‘Ride Pilot’ To Debut In California

Commencing with customers in California, Volvo Cars presents the Ride Pilot, an unsupervised autonomous driving system for its next generation of pure electric vehicles.

By building on an industry-leading safety standard, the Ride Pilot aims to free up more time for customers and make driving a Volvo even more convenient and enjoyable.

The Ride Pilot is planned as an add-on subscription for the company’s forthcoming fully electric flagship SUV that will be revealed later this year.

Volvo Cars’ head of research and development, Mats Moberg, expressed, “We are proud to announce the planned US launch of our first truly unsupervised autonomous driving feature, as we look to set a new industry standard for autonomy without compromising safety. Having Zenseact’s brand new AD software and Luminar’s LiDAR standard in our new fully electric SUV is a game-changer for Volvo Cars, as well as for automotive safety and autonomous driving.”

Notably, on its next generation of cars, Volvo is setting a new standard for safety, with over-the-air software updates in combination with a state-of-the-art sensor setup. 

In terms of the software, it is developed by autonomous driving (AD) software company Zenseact together with Volvo Cars’ in-house team of developers, and developers from Luminar. 

As for the sensor setup, it consists of more than two dozen sensors, including Luminar’s cutting-edge Iris LiDAR sensor, which work hand in glove with the developed software.

Luminar’s LiDAR sensor complements five radars, eight cameras and sixteen ultrasonic sensors, and this standard sensor setup provides excellent vision and perception reliability. 

Together with continuous, over-the-air software rollouts, the system ensures full redundancy and enables Volvo Cars to achieve safe autonomous driving.

This software-sensor combination and the safety it enables will be standard, available from day one on Volvo Cars’ forthcoming fully electric SUV and improve over time.

However, this new Ride Pilot system will only be made available to customers once it has gone through Volvo Cars’ rigorous verification and testing protocol. 

Specifically, it includes validation of the technology as safe for use on highways in a number of varying conditions.

Currently, as part of this verification process, Volvo and Zenseact are already testing autonomous driving functionalities on roads in Sweden, and collecting data across Europe and the US. 

Most importantly, by the middle of this year, the company intends to begin testing on roads in California. 

Where the climate, traffic conditions and regulatory framework provide a favourable environment for the introduction of autonomous driving.

Once the Ride Pilot has been verified as safe and after introducing it in California first, as mentioned, the company will gradually start rolling it out in other markets and regions around the globe.

Zenseact’s chief executive officer, Ödgärd Anderson, remarked, “Delivering a new safety standard for the industry requires a level of rigorous testing and verification that will expand globally. Zenseact AD software plays a key role in this new standard and in the journey towards zero collisions.”  

On another note, by using Ride Pilot, drivers will be able to free up time while driving, and spend it on secondary activities like reading, writing, working or socialising. 

It can also help drivers arrive at their destination rested and recharged, by reducing the mental strain that may come with driving, especially in traffic jams or heavy traffic. 

Plus, customers can expect exactly what the name ‘Ride Pilot’ implies, as when the car drives on its own, Volvo Cars takes full responsibility for the driving, offering the driver peace of mind.

Luminar’s founder and chief executive officer, Austin Russell, concluded, “Luminar’s vision is to democratise next-generation safety and autonomy, and we’re already seeing this become a reality with the first vehicle launching on Volvo’s new platform. With Luminar as standard on every vehicle, their next SUV has the opportunity to be the safest vehicle on the road.”