Swedish automaker Volvo has a long-held reputation as a car company that puts safety first. Some safety features, like replacing spear-like traditional steering wheel shafts with bulkier, non-impaley versions are easy to see. Other features, like laser sensors that detect the movements of nearby cars, are a little trickier to demonstrate on the showroom floor. So, to advertise their safety in the modern era, Volvo teamed with Microsoft to create models of the cars in virtual reality:
Ever wondered who would be responsible if you were struck by a self-driving car? As of today, Volvo says it's their problem. Autoblog.com reports that if the car is a Volvo and it's running autonomously, the Swedish automaker has pledged to take on full liability for crashes in the future.
Automotive safety systems giant Autoliv has joined Volvo in the Swedish automaker's Drive Me autonomous car research project. The two companies will share their findings in order to accelerate efforts to get the active safety systems fundamental to autonomous driving into production.
As long as there are humans, there will be garbage. And, for a long time, it seemed inevitable that there would always be garbagemen, too, to collect that refuse. A new project by carmaker Volvo, recycling company Renova, Sweden's Chalmers University of Technology and Mälardalen University, and Penn State University wants to create robot assistants for garbage trucks. With automation, a human driver can stick to the road, and a robot can do the literal heavy lifting.
