Uber And Volvo Cars Form Autonomous Vehicle Venture

Volvo cars are considered to be some of the safest in the world. Volvo earned itself a place in history by inventing several safety related technologies that are being used in cars across the globe. For instance the three-point seatbelt that every car has to be equipped with was invented by an engineer for Volvo cars, back in 1959. The company was so concerned about the safety of passengers that it never applied for a patent of the design. The patent was kept open in the interest of the safety of people, and made available to other car manufacturers for free. Many such inventions defined the image of Volvo cars in the world: the maker of tough, reliable cars that seldom leave a bad impression.

This history makes Volvo the ideal company to champion the idea of a driverless car. The Swedish carmaker recently announced that it will team up with taxi service provider Uber in a $300 million joint venture to develop and test autonomous automobiles.

“Both Uber and Volvo will use the same base vehicle for the next stage of their own autonomous car strategies,” Volvo Cars, owned by China's Geely, said in a statement. It added, “This will involve Uber adding its own self-developed autonomous driving systems to the Volvo base vehicle.”

Both companies -- giants in their respective line of business -- were also two of the founding members of an alliance unveiled in April this year, to push for a US legal code on driverless cars. The same group also includes Internet giant Google, American automotive manufacturer Ford and Uber's competitor Lyft.

Uber as well as Volvo cars have been testing their own developments in the area of autonomous vehicle technology. Volvo engineers began testing the company's home-grown semi-autonomous cars in 2014, in Gothenburg where the Swedish company has its headquarters. Uber, on the other hand, revealed its first self-driving car in May this year. It declared that it had begun testing the autonomous vehicle on the streets of Pittsburgh in the American state of Pennsylvania.

“Over one million people die in car accidents every year. These are tragedies that self-driving technology can help solve, but we can't do this alone. That's why our partnership with a great manufacturer like Volvo is important,” Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick said in a statement.

Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars, said the venture placed Volvo 'at the heart of the current technological revolution in the automotive industry'.