China is fast becoming a magnet for autonomous vehicle production, and Chinese-owned Volvo is the latest development. A large-scale experiment announces testing on 100 autonomous vehicles in China’s insane traffic.
The autonomous drive experiment by Swedish carmaker Volvo will get carried in everyday conditions under limited driving situations. The express roads and highways will be used for the test drive. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., a Chinese firm owns Volvo. Final dates and cities are now being discussed to launch the self-driving experiment.
According to the president and chief executive of Volvo, Autonomous driving can add to the road safety in cities, and many accidents can be prevented and lives saved the sooner the autonomous cars are on the roads. The company is negotiating with those cities that are interested and working on the proper infrastructure and appropriate regulations along with scoring permission. There is a need to place legislations regarding autonomous driving on the roads. This latest attempt by Volvo is to drive autonomous vehicle push and eliminate traffic deaths.
The car industry cannot do much in this direction all by itself, and governmental support is much needed. It is essential to get the necessary permissions and infrastructure in place before giving thumbs up to the experiment, according to the company. The city has to be big with lots of consumers and commuters. There are no details on the costs of the autonomous vehicle test drive. The self-driving cars will act like regular cars on the road and alert the driver to activate the autopilot mode and provide him the option to keep or let go of the control.
Besides Volvo, other companies such as Google, Audi and Mercedes are developing self-driving vehicles. Driverless cars could well be the future if such experiments are run successfully.
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