Volvo has unveiled a new concept car that aims to make longer trips more comfortable. Image/Volvo.
Volvo has unveiled a new concept car that aims to make longer trips more comfortable. Image/Volvo.
Volvo has unveiled a futuristic concept car that it hopes will replace short-haul air travel and introduce new safety standards that could put driverless vehicles on the roads sooner.
The Swedish company's 360c autonomous vehicle does away with the steering wheel and uses the extra space created by electric drive systems to create different cabin layouts.
These can be configured into modes such as commuting, mobile office, entertainment and sleeping.
With a flat-bed installed, Volvo believes its cars can replace short-haul air travel, targeting flights of up to 400km - about the distance from London to Newcastle.
Mårten Levenstam, the Volvo executive in charge of the project, said: "People talk about autonomous cars as just robot taxis but they are more - they could get rid of domestic air travel."
Volvo believes the vehicle could replace short-haul flights in the future. Image/Volvo.
Volvo - which is owned by China's Geely - estimates a 400km flight takes four hours when airport security and other delays are factored in, with only one hour spent in the air.
"You could do that trip in splendid isolation in your car rather than four awkward hours in an aeroplane," said Mr Levenstam. "An autonomous car could pick you up at your home at drop you at the door of your destination."
Robin Page, Volvo senior vice-president of design, suggested that as technology and infrastructure develops, cars might be able to do longer trips by travelling in convoy at high speeds, taking a further chunk of the air travel market.
"If we see dedicated lanes on roads for autonomous vehicles, then they could 'platoon' together at much higher speeds than when they share the road with conventional cars."
The 360c, which could be on roads by the 2030s, features a series of lights and sounds that it uses to communicate to other road users what its intentions are.
The removal of the steering wheel creates more space inside the vehicle. Image/Volvo.
Volvo believes such a system will increase safety, according to Volvo president and chief executive Håkan Samuelsson, though he says autonomous cars will not replace conventional cars overnight.
"Change is coming but it will happen gradually with driverless cars mixing with conventional ones," he said. "A lot of safety information is communicated just by being able to see a driver's eyes. It's important to maintain and relate that information but it has to be done in a uniform way."
The 360c takes its name from a continuous light bar that is fitted all around the vehicle. As well as conventional red and green for stop and go, the car will also use aquamarine lights to denote that it is an autonomous car, alerting pedestrians and other road users to its presence.
Cars will also be able to fire ultrasonic signals that warn people they are in a vehicles' path.
Page said such systems would help end the worry of pedestrians being able to "bully" autonomous cars, knowing that they will always give way to a human. However, the system puts some of the onus for safety back on pedestrians, rather than leaving it entirely down to the cars' programming.
Researchers predict that driverless cars will eventually eliminate fatal crashes on the roads, as almost all are caused by human error.
However, the 360c will not mean Volvo stripping out safety systems. "We will have to retain them until all cars on the road are driverless," said Levenstam.
A Volvo car being used by ride-hailing business Uber to test driverless systems was involved in a fatal accident in March, believed to be the first time a self-driving car has killed someone.
However Volvo insists developer self-driving cars will deliver better safety in the long-term.
"It is not as simple as saying we will deploy autonomous cars only when they are 100pc safe," Levenstam said. "They should be looked at in the same way as medicine is tested. You do lab testing but at some point you have to do a clinical test, that's when you talk to medical regulators. Their ethics committee discusses the pros and cons and the risk and they make a decision."
Volvo has a history of safety and the company gifted the three-point safety belt to the wider industry in the 1960s, helping to slash road deaths.
The 360c could be a similar moment for the company, according to Levenstam. He said that Volvo has had early discussions with authorities in countries around the world about its driverless systems, including the UK, US and China, along with its home government and Brussels.
The company was seen as an early leader in self-driving systems, but has fallen back into the pack in recent years.
Samuelsson said that the 360c was "not just a vision of what could be. It is a business idea for Volvo".
