Volvo and Uber will undertake a massive expansion of their partnership involving automated vehicles over the next three years. After spending the past 15 months building prototypes that were subsequently deployed in select cities around the United States with human safety drivers behind the wheel, the two companies signed an agreement announced Monday that calls for Uber to purchase approximately 24,000 XC90 SUVs from the Swedish carmaker.
Intended for fully driverless operations, the vehicles are slated to arrive in Uber?s hands between 2019 and 2021. Based on current plans of competitors racing toward autonomous deployments, a self-driving fleet of that size would constitute the largest in the world.
Once Uber obtains the base vehicles, which are built on Volvo?s modular Scalable Product Architecture, the ride-hailing company will outfit them with its own self-driving software and sensors. Ostensibly, Uber?s plans would include deploying them in commercial operations shortly thereafter, but those plans are still being formed.
?This deal puts us on the path toward mass produced self-driving vehicles at scale,? said Jeff Miller, Uber?s head of automotive alliances. ?And it?ll allow us to roll out autonomous vehicles at scale and provides us sufficient flexibility to begin scaling production when our tech is ready.?
Although the Volvo deal adds general guidance on that time frame, there are still questions regarding the mettle of Uber?s autonomous technology. A March 2017 ...