Volvo Cars announced their unsupervised autonomous driving feature Ride Pilot will debut with customers in California.
Ride Pilot is an autonomous driving software that will allow Volvo Cars to take responsibility for the driving. This will enable passengers and drivers to spend their time reading, writing, working or even socializing.
Once verified by State and Federal authorities, Ride Pilot will be available as an add-on subscription in the new Volvo electric SUV set to be unveiled later this year.
“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,” said Mats Moberg, head of research and development at Volvo Cars.
Volvo, Luminar and Zenseact developed Ride Pilot from the ground up. The sensor set-up consists of five radars, eight cameras, sixteen ultrasonic sensors and Luminar’s cutting-edge Iris LiDAR sensor.
Currently, Volvo is testing Ride Pilot on roads in Sweden. In addition, the company is collecting data across Europe and the United States.
By the middle of the year, Volvo hopes to begin testing on roads in California.
Volvo chose California due to its climate, traffic conditions and regulatory framework set up for autonomous testing.
Several other companies have already tested in the state, and Volvo hopes to join them in 2022.
Volvo Cars did not provide a timeline for a public or beta release or provide additional information on their new flagship electric SUV.
