With many companies in the tech and autonomous industry are preaching that people should drop their cars and share rides with others, Volvo seems to still bank on people owning personal cars.
According the Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo, he said that people should have the opportunity to have cars that will give them value and a premium car at that. This is a different view from the views that are held about autonomous cars.
It is not like Volvo is disputing the view that autonomous cars have since it has a partnership with Uber on the same cause. They even have a car that Uber outfitted with its software, Volvo XC90 SUVs that will be test run before the year runs out.
Even with all this in place, the company does not seem to be in a hurry to join the bandwagon that believes that the end of private cars has come. They have even given us a glimpse of what its next autonomous car looks like. In the previous year, the company launched an interior design of its Concept 26 that is quite futuristic where you see the wheel of the car recede and the seat of the car shifting into a relaxing position while a big screen with high definition appears from the dashboard. This shows that Volvo is still thinking of how to make luxurious vehicles for people.
According to Samuelsson, when a motorist is stuck in traffic for up to an hour, such motorist can achieve a lot during that period. The motorist could read up something, have breakfast, make calls through teleconferencing and all this can be achieved with Volvo.
The price that such multi-featured car will go for is one that we are yet to get an answer to. But from what Samuelsson said, the car should be in the neighbourhood of $10, 000. He said that at the end of the experience, the users will be able to tell if the car was worth it or not.
The company said it does not think that the idea of autonomous functionality necessary means that the cars will not have brake pedal and steering wheel. They said they want the motorist to be the one to decide whether they are in the mood to drive or to allow the self-driving system to drive them when they want to relax.
The company which is the first company to accept that it will take responsibility for any crash that occurs with its autonomous technology and does not believe that its cars will be involved in such as others have been. Volvo is of the opinion that the option of allowing the motorist to be the one to determine if they want to drive or allow the self-driving system to take over will eliminate majority of the accidents that such cars get into.
