Offering further proof that the Volvo brand is a leading player in the push towards autonomous driving, Volvo Cars recently agreed to sell tens of thousands of autonomous driving-compatible vehicles to Uber, a company that has revolutionized the way cities move and work. This agreement strengthens the companies’ existing strategic partnership created in fall 2016, and confirms Volvo Cars’ desire to be the preferred global supplier of autonomous ride-sharing vehicles.
Our Volvo dealers serving Columbia, MD have high hopes for this joint venture, especially given the prevalent role played by the Volvo brand’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) – a fully modular, in-house-developed platform that’s one of the world’s most advanced. SPA is the system behind the award-winning Volvo XC60 and Volvo XC90. In fact, it’s the Volvo XC90 luxury SUV that will be supplied to Uber, with engineers from both companies working to integrate all of the core autonomous driving technologies (performance, redundancy, safety, etc.) into these vehicles so that Uber can then integrate its own self-driving technology.
The Volvo brand’s involvement will fuel Uber’s progress towards its ultimate goal of mass-produced, self-driving automobiles at scale. And for Volvo Cars, the partnership is an opportunity to continue developing its own independent autonomous car solution. By 2021, Volvo Cars hopes to release its first 100 percent autonomous automobile.
The decision to use the Volvo XC90 as the project’s featured vehicle isn’t surprising, given this SUV’s many great qualities. Every Volvo XC90 is spacious and agile, well-designed and impressively safe. Plus, its two engine choices are outstanding: a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that achieves 250 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque, and a 2.0-liter turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder engine that outputs 316 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque.
Our local Volvo dealers will keep you updated on this project’s developments!
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