Come 2017, Volvo will launch self-driving cars

Swedish car maker Volvo has announced plans to launch self-driving cars on a limited scale from the year 2017, with the aim of achieving ‘sustainable mobility and ensure a crash-free future.’

100 cars will be put on sale in two years time and their owners will be able to take them for a spin in selected roads of the Swedish city of Gothenburg. Government laws will prevent the company from making its car available in other cities of the country.

"We are entering uncharted territory in the field of autonomous driving," said Dr Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President Research and Development of Volvo Car Group. "Taking the exciting step to a public pilot, with the ambition to enable ordinary people to sit behind the wheel in normal traffic on public roads, has never been done before."

Autonomous car technology has been gaining support from a number of car manufacturers and technology giants such as Google and Apple. All of them seem to be in a race to make this technology available to public, although, most of them are yet to come up with a definite launch date.

Making self-driving cars is one thing. And ensuring that they are safe enough for public use is another. But Volvo has enough confidence in their R&D department.

"Making this complex system 99 per cent reliable is not good enough. You need to get much closer to 100 per cent before you can let self-driving cars mix with other road users in real-life traffic," said Volvo’s technical specialist Erik Coelingh "Here, we have a similar approach to that of the aircraft industry. Our fail-operational architecture includes backup systems that will ensure that Autopilot will continue to function safely also if an element of the system were to become disabled."