Volvo Cars, a pioneer in the automotive industry, declared at Climate Week NYC that it will cease the production of all diesel-powered models by early 2024, reaffirming its commitment to becoming a fully electric car manufacturer by 2030. This bold move positions Volvo Cars as one of the first legacy automakers to discontinue diesel production.
The decision to end diesel production aligns with Volvo Cars’ ambitious transformation plan, aiming for a fully electric vehicle (EV) lineup by 2030 and aspiring to be a climate-neutral company by 2040. The company has already divested from the development of new combustion engines, selling its stake in Aurobay, the joint venture holding its remaining combustion engine assets, in November 2022.
Volvo Cars has been at the forefront of sustainability since acknowledging its products’ negative environmental impact in 1972. The recent Global Climate Stocktake report from the United Nations underscores the urgent need for action against climate change.
The decision to phase out diesel production by early 2024 reflects the rapidly changing landscape of the automotive industry and evolving customer preferences. Only four years ago, diesel engines constituted a significant portion of Volvo Cars’ sales in Europe. Today, the majority of the company’s European sales are electrified cars, reflecting the shift in market demand and Volvo’s focus on electrification.
As Volvo Cars paves the way for a sustainable future, the decision to discontinue diesel production contributes to improved urban air quality by reducing emissions of gases like nitrogen oxide (NOx) associated with diesel engines.
In order for autonomous vehicles to function safely, especially when the need for driver intervention is not required, sensor technology must be extremely precise and detailed. While the computer can make intelligent decisions to control the movements of the car, the sensors are its eyes and must collect data of the surroundings and the potential hazards.
At present, many cars already have radar and camera sensors to scan the road ahead, enabling identification of pedestrians and other vehicles. Even earlier, there were already sensors to detect vehicles in the blind spot and this has advanced to include vehicles that approach from the left or right as a vehicle is reversing out of a parking bay.
With the next generation of the Volvo XC90, to be revealed in 2022, state-of-the-art sensors will be used which will include LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology developed by Luminar and an autonomous driving computer-powered by the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip, as standard. This will be industry-leading safety technology that can help to save even more lives as the company sets a new benchmark for automotive safety.
By combining this state-of-the-art hardware with Volvo, Zenseact and Luminar software for the next generation of its well-established collision-avoidance technology, Volvo Cars aims to reduce fatalities and accidents as a whole with this new safety package.
“Volvo Cars is, and always has been, a leader in safety. It will now define the next level of car safety,” said Hakan Samuelsson, Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. “By having this hardware as standard, we can continuously improve safety features over the air and introduce advanced autonomous drive systems, reinforcing our leadership in safety.”
With the new safety package, Volvo Cars aims to reduce collisions, and the reduction rate is anticipated to accelerate over time via over-the-air software updates. The new technologies are also designed to specifically address those traffic situations which result in a large portion of the remaining severe injuries and fatalities found today.
“In our ambition to deliver ever safer cars, our long-term aim is to achieve zero collisions and avoid crashes altogether,” said Henrik Green, Chief Technology Officer at Volvo Cars. “As we improve our safety technology continuously through updates over the air, we expect collisions to become increasingly rare and hope to save more lives.”
Once introduced, the technology is expected to mature over time, becoming more capable and allowing the car to assist and improve the capabilities of a human driver in safety-critical situations. Whereas previous generations of technology largely relied on warning the driver for potential immediate threats, this new safety technology will, over time, increasingly intervene as needed to prevent collisions.
While saving lives and preventing injury remains the company’s first priority, Volvo Cars also sees a potential added benefit of lower insurance costs as car crashes involving Volvo cars become increasingly rare.
Beyond the sensor suite and Artificial Intelligence computing performance, Volvo’s forthcoming flagship model will also come with back-up systems for key functions such as steering and braking that make it hardware ready for safe, unsupervised autonomous driving once available.
These back-up systems, alongside LiDAR and the computer software, will enable the Highway Pilot functionality, developed in-house together with Volvo Cars’ autonomous driving software development company, Zenseact. An autonomous driving feature for use on motorways, the optional Highway Pilot will be activated for customers when verified safe and legally allowed for individual geographic locations and conditions.
Earlier this year, Volvo Cars announced it will use NVIDIA technology to centralise computing. The core computer and autonomous drive computer, both powered by NVIDIA technology, allow its cars to become safer, more personal and more sustainable over time through over-the-air updates, while also providing it with the computing power required for vision and LiDAR processing. The company has already been using the high-performance, energy-efficient NVIDIA DRIVE since 2016.
In 2019, the Volvo Group (which produces commercial vehicle models) also signed an agreement with NVIDIA to jointly develop the decision-making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines. Utilizing NVIDIA’s end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing, the resulting system is designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways.
Volvo is one of the pioneers of autonomous cars, this news isn’t new. What is however, is the fact that the Swedish automaker will be developing its fleet of self driving vehicles with the help of regular civilians. Select Swedish families will be responsible for testing these cars on the public roads of Gothenburg and feedback their impressions to Volvo Cars engineers.
The first two families of this pilot programme are the Hains and Simonovskis. They will be tasked with driving their respective XC90 SUV on daily commutes to help the automaker iron out some of the creases with its systems. Called the Drive Me project, data collected here will allow engineers to monitor and study the acquired data from these vehicles.
Drive Me will involve real customers who will be responsible for testing various stages of Volvo’s autonomous system from driver-assisted to fully autonomous. During the initial stages, drivers will need to keep their hands on the steering wheel while the vehicles are in motion. Later on, they will be exposed to more advanced autonomous functions after attending special training sessions.
“Drive Me is an important research project for Volvo Cars,” said Henrik Green, Senior Vice President for the company’s R&D department. “We expect to learn a lot from engaging these families and will use their experiences to shape the development of our autonomous driving technology, so that by 2021 we can offer our customers a fully autonomous car.”
These XC90 vehicles have been fitted with Volvo’s latest driver-assistance technology, as well as an array of cameras and sensors. The initial stages of the programme will take place in a controlled environment under the supervision of a Volvo Cars safety expert. Once the Hains and Simonovskis get the hang of things, they will be allowed to use these vehicles as their daily drivers.
Volvo plans on launching its first fully autonomous car for the general public by 2021. And the data acquired through Drive Me, will play a vital role for the automaker as it prepares its technology for mass production.
Volvo has signed a framework agreement with Uber, which will see the ride-sharing company purchase several thousand vehicles between 2019 and 2021. This non-exclusive agreement will enhance the strategic partnership that was announced between the two parties back in August 2016.
These vehicles will be based on Volvo’s fully modular platform that it calls Scalable Product Architecture (SPA). It serves as a base for current and future vehicles from the Swedish automaker. Currently, it underpins cars the like the S90 series and the new XC60 SUV.
Since its scalable, SPA can be used to develop a variety of different Volvos from a compact hatchback to a full-blown SUV. Volvo claims that it is one of the most advanced car architectures in the world, but Volkswagen employ a similar strategy with its own modular platform.
Volvo’s engineers are working closely with those from Uber to jointly develop the XC90 to serve in the ride-sharing service’s car fleet. These base vehicles will be fitted with the necessary safety, redundancy and autonomous-driving technologies that will enable Uber to offer its customers a fully autonomous ride sharing service.
“The automotive industry is being disrupted by technology, and Volvo Cars chooses to be an active part of that disruption,” said Håkan Samuelsson, President and Chief Executive of Volvo Cars. “Our aim is to be the supplier of choice for AD ride-sharing service providers globally. Today’s agreement with Uber is a primary example of that strategic direction.”
Despite this, Volvo isn’t handing over the ‘keys to the kingdom’ to Uber, instead it will be developing its own independent autonomous-car strategy. This will be parallel and unrelated to that of Uber’s, with solid plans of introducing Volvo’s first fully autonomous car in 2021.