Volvo-a low-key car brand and low-key autonomous driving technology.

For many years, "safety" has been one of the biggest features and selling points of Volvo brand, but it is precisely because this "label" is so deeply rooted in people's hearts that consumers can easily ignore the advantages of Volvo brand in other aspects, such as the rapid development of autonomous driving technology around the world in recent years.

Although one of the ultimate goals of this technology is to reduce traffic accidents and solve a wider range of "safety" problems, consumers seem to be more accustomed to directly linking autonomous driving with intelligent technology rather than "safety". In fact, among the traditional automobile manufacturers, Volvo is definitely the most active automobile manufacturer to develop autonomous driving technology, put into the function of autonomous driving technology and lead in the field of autonomous driving.

As early as 2005, Volvo Cars set up an autonomous driving project team and officially put the commercialization of autonomous driving on the agenda. In 20 12, Volvo participated in the European environmental protection road safety procession project to study the feasibility of driving in procession on the expressway. At that time, the leading vehicle was a Volvo truck controlled by the driver, and the three Volvo passenger cars that followed automatically were S60, V60 and XC60. The speed of vehicles shall not exceed 90km/h, and the interval between vehicles shall not exceed 4m. It is reported that in order to complete this test, Volvo installed a camera, millimeter wave radar and lidar sensor on the passenger car, so the vehicle has auxiliary driving functions such as adaptive cruise, lane keeping and parking assistance.

In the following years, Volvo gradually clarified the research and development direction of autonomous driving and formulated a clear development route.

1, producing and developing self-driving cars;

2. Provide basic models for the self-driving team and become a global * * * automobile service provider/cooperative brand for the self-driving team;

3. Develop and sell highly automatic driving software.

Under this development route, 20 15, the world's first mass-produced and equipped pilot? Volvo XC90, a brand-new model of Assist pilot assistance system, is listed, which can automatically follow the preceding vehicle within 0-50 km/h, and the system can take over the steering wheel braking system; Since then, the second generation of pilots? The Assist driver assistance system has also been installed on the new model of Volvo cars, which can achieve 0- 130 km/h without following the driver assistance of the preceding vehicle, and provide assistance such as steering, acceleration, distance keeping and speed control. Compared with the previous generation, the second generation system is much more practical, especially in expressway. Just press the button in the middle of the left side of the steering wheel, and you can enter the automatic driving state.

But for safety reasons, turn on Pilot? After assisting the system, if both hands leave the steering wheel for more than 10 seconds, or the steering wheel does not feel the pressure on the hands for 5- 10 seconds, it will prompt to release the automatic driving state. Can you see Volvo pilots? Auxiliary system, comparing ProPilot made by Nissan and Super? Cruise and Neo now? Pilot, the function is the same. The biggest difference is that Volvo got on the bus for mass production earlier than any of them.

But in the final analysis, these technologies and functions are only L2 autopilot. Obviously, Volvo's goal is not limited to this. Therefore, in 20 18, Volvo released the 360c self-driving concept car, which provided unlimited imagination for future travel. At that time, people will no longer care about how powerful the car is and how it drives. The car has evolved into a carrier, which realizes the interconnection of people, cars and scenes through sensors and communication systems. To realize this great vision, a car company's ability is limited and it must cooperate with other companies.

In order to reach a higher level of autonomous driving technology faster, in 20 16, Volvo Cars and travel company Uber reached a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly develop the next generation of autonomous driving technology. In September of the same year, Volvo and Autoliv of Sweden agreed to take a taxi and set up a joint venture company Zenuity to jointly develop autopilot software and autopilot safety technology. In 20 17, Volvo established cooperation with NVIDIA to jointly develop the latest autonomous driving technology. In June of the same year, 5438+065438+ 10 signed a cooperation framework agreement with Uber to provide tens of thousands of self-driving basic models for it in the next few years. 20 18, 1 1 reached an agreement with Baidu to jointly develop pure electric highly autonomous vehicles.

In 20 19, Volvo Cars and Uber * * * introduced the XC90, which is the basic model of autonomous driving. In July this year, Volvo provided XC60 model for Didi Autopilot, and became the automobile supplier of the self-driving fleet of two major travel service companies. Didi and Uber have nearly 750 million customers around the world, and what this means for Volvo can be imagined.

In June this year, Volvo Cars and its strategic investment brands Polar Star and Lectra officially reached a strategic partnership with Waymo, and Waymo became the exclusive global partner of Volvo Car Group's L4 autonomous driving technology. The primary goal of this strategic cooperation is to bring Waymo? Driver technology is carried on the brand-new exclusive pure tram platform, thus creating application scenarios and business models including online car service. This will further expand the competitive advantage of Volvo Cars in the field of autonomous driving.

As for the research of highly autonomous driving software, we have to mention Zenuity, a joint venture between Volvo and Autoliv of Sweden four years ago. The establishment of the company is one of the unique modes for traditional car companies and first-class suppliers to jointly develop autonomous driving. At that time, Volvo provided intellectual property and engineering talents to Zenuity, while Autoliv took out the contract. 654.38+26 million dollars of funds and some intellectual property rights.

However, after several years, many plans of the joint venture company failed to make due progress, so in April this year, Volvo and Autoliv chose to break up, and Zenuity, the developer of intelligent driving software, was split.

Zenuity's business and personnel in Munich, Germany and Detroit, USA were handed over to Veoneer, who will focus on the development and commercialization of ADAS system and integrate it into Veoneer's platform. Vinnell's predecessor was Autoliv's Automotive Electronics Division, which was split and listed on 20 18.

Zenuity's autonomous driving (ADS) development business, operation and personnel in Gothenburg, Sweden and Shanghai, China will be transferred to a new independent company (Zenseact) under Volvo, whose main business is the development of auto driving and active safety software, providing strong support for relevant software of Volvo cars. Besides Zenuity? A unified software platform has been developed for ADAS and ADS systems, which will be the basis for the follow-up research and development of Weiner and Zenseact, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volvo.

Although Volvo and Autoliv finally broke up, the result was not a failure. After all, both sides got the technology and resources they wanted. Recently, according to foreign media reports, Zenseact will also welcome a new CEO? dg？ rd？ Ms. Anderson is an excellent automotive software engineer. She has been working in the software R&D department of Volvo Cars and has rich experience in the development of autonomous driving software. She will officially take office from 1 1 in 2020.

In the past, in the field of safety, Volvo's leading position and good reputation have won the recognition of many consumers. According to Volvo's plan, the 2022 Volvo? The goal of XC90 model is to realize fully automatic driving in expressway? Pilots and Volvo CTO? Henrik? Green also mentioned, "Volvo will be responsible for driving, and humans can free their hands and eyes without staring at the road." We will gradually expand the coverage scenes and fields of autonomous driving through OTA, which is a gradual process. When I heard the news, as a consumer, I really looked forward to this day coming soon. Don't evade tickets.

Figure? |? From the network

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.