Volvo vowed to have an absolutely autonomous system in 4 years

Volvo plans to roll out its first self-driving in just four years, and the company claims it’s going to be way more advanced than what other automakers will have to offer.

“The thing that is unique is that we are really trying to deploy the technology in reality. And when I say that, I mean self-driving cars that allow drivers to do something else behind the steering wheel,” told Erik Coelingh, Senior Technical Leader for Safety and Driver Support Technologies.

In other words, the company’s first self-driving car won’t require a human to supervise it at all while the car is in control. The driver will be able to do another activity while the car does all the driving. What’s more, it will be designed to deal with just about any situation.

While many automakers have vowed to have an an autonomous system available by 2020, not one has yet promised that no human supervision will be needed.

To help Volvo reach this ambitious goal, Volvo is launching its DriveMe program next year in Gothenburg, Sweden, London, and in select cities in China. The research program will place 100 normal customers in each city behind the wheel of its self-driving cars.

Participating customers will still have to supervise the car while it’s in autonomous mode, but the data collected during the test period will help the company move towards developing a truly autonomous vehicle.

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