“When a Volvo car is in self-driving mode, the company assumes full responsibility,” Volvo President and CEO Hakan Samuelsson said just days after unveiling the user interface for its upcoming self-driving system, Intellisafe Autopilot.
This bold statement was taken from a speech given at the “The Future of Self-Driving Cars – Are They Safe?” seminar hosted by Volvo at Sweden House in Washington, D.C. The company has long been confident about the underlying technology of self-driving cars but has warned that a number of thorny legal issues, particularly around liability, could hinder their adoption.
Volvo has not officially stated what it means by “taking full responsibility,” but it likely refers to who will be held liable if an autonomous vehicle has an accident: the driver or the automaker. Google and Mercedes-Benz have reportedly said they will take full responsibility if their autonomous vehicles are involved in a crash.
Samuelson also criticized federal regulators for not being responsible for establishing a framework for regulating and testing self-driving cars. “The United States is at risk of losing its leadership position because of the lack of federal guidelines for testing and certifying self-driving cars,” he said. “The lack of uniform rules means automakers cannot conduct reliable testing and develop vehicles that meet all the different guidelines in all 50 states.”
The first cars to feature Volvo’s Intellisafe Autopilot system will reportedly be a limited run of 100 XC90 crossover SUVs for the Drive Me project, scheduled to open in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2017. The program will see self-driving SUVs made available to families and commuters in the region on a daily basis, driving autonomously for around 50 kilometers (31 miles) on selected roads, with the cars expected to be available in production models soon after.
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