Autonomous cars conjure up a vision of stress-free driving in which the motorist can sit back, stare at their iPad and let the smart technology do all the work.
Parents will doubt that driving through heavy traffic with children on board can ever be this serene.
That scenario will be put to the test when one of Europe’s biggest motor manufacturers starts the largest trials of the technology on Britain’s roads.
In the first move of its kind, Volvo is seeking families to volunteer to man a new generation of self-driving cars when a pilot scheme starts in London next year. The trial, involving XC90 4x4s, will monitor normal drivers’ and passengers’ reactions to the technology in “real world” conditions and chart how well the car works on busy streets. Up to 100 cars will be used over at least two years.
It will differ from the four schemes the government is starting across England this year. These will largely take place away from the public highway and include pod-style vehicles being driven in pedestrianised areas in Greenwich and Milton Keynes. Erik Coelingh, Volvo’s head of safety and driver support technologies, said: “We want to test this with real people, in real cars on real roads. You can always use a test driver to judge whether the technology works but it is more difficult to predict what real customers will do behind the steering wheel when a car goes into autonomous mode.” There will also be trials in Gothenburg and in a city in China.
Engineers from Volvo will log about 30 miles of roads in London this year using 3D mapping technology. Details of the routes will then be fed into the XC90’s on-board computer. The car will be driven like a normal vehicle until it reaches a stretch of mapped road. Motorists will then be able to flick a switch to activate autonomous mode.
It will use a complex network of sensors, radars, cloud-based GPS and intelligent braking and steering technology to negotiate the traffic. When the car leaves a mapped zone, it will alert the driver to take over. Failure to do so will result in the car safely pulling over at the roadside, Volvo said.
The trial will appeal for volunteers over the next year who will be Volvo owners living near the trial routes