Volvo tech boss outlines next steps toward eyes-off, hands-off driving

Volvo wants autonomous vehicles to make up one-third of its deliveries by 2025. A key step toward achieving that goal will be equipping next-generation models such as the XC90 with the capability to drive themselves on the highway. A major hurdle, however, will be getting approval to activate the system. Volvo Chief Technology Officer Henrik Green believes the automaker’s longtime commitment to vehicle safety will help overcome that challenge. He discussed this and more with Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc.

What are the main challenges to launching your fully autonomous highway driving system?
To safely deploy our Highway Pilot function we need a legal framework in place so we can homologate the vehicle. This might be different country by country or state by state. That is one challenge. Secondly, we need to verify and validate the portions of highway where we can activate the function. We are building in this functionality as a hardware-ready solution for our SPA2 cars.

Is there a roadmap for the rollout?
We will see this rolled out organically. I compare it a bit with how we rolled out the mobile network in the 1990s. We had a map that grew over time where you could actually use your mobile phone. I see this being similar. There will be a map with a couple of important commuter highways in key cities where we will begin and grow from there.

Will Volvo’s strong commitment to safety give you an advantage when going to the different governments to get Highway Pilot approved for use?
We will leverage the relationships that we have. One of our strengths is our long history in the area of traffic safety. That adds value and credibility to what we are trying to do here. We have a really good relationship not only with officials in Sweden but also in the U.S. with NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] and in many other countries.

What will be the first markets for this technology?
We haven't decided that yet. A lot will depend on how each state decides on the legality of it [unsupervised highway driving]. Then we have to decide on the most attractive markets for the technology.

Is it a stretch to say that by 2022 Volvo will have a Level 4 autonomous driving system on the road?
Using levels does not correctly clarify what we are aiming for. The important distinction for us is that we are aiming for an unsupervised system, but we are doing so with the very specific limitation that this is for a particular set of highways. This will not be a self-driving system that can take you door to door or drive on any street in any traffic condition or weather condition. We are surgically defining the scope in which this functionality will be safe and secure. Highways are the best place to start because for a massive number of our customers this system will provide a useful solution for a very annoying part of their commute. Highways are also much more controlled environments than, for instance, a city center with pedestrian crossings and other challenges that add so much more complexity and risk for a technology that is just starting to arrive. This system will not fulfill all of the requirements of a Level 4 system, but what makes it important to us is that it will allow unsupervised driving on a particular set of highways.

What other limitations do you foresee?
As this is rolled out there also could be limitations because of weather. It might not be active if it's snowing, for instance.

When the system is activated Volvo takes full responsibility and liability, correct?
Yes.

How much time are you building in to make sure the driver is ready to re-take control?
This is one of the critical things we are working on to make sure this technology is both safe and reliable from a user-experience perspective. We have done a lot of research and we are continuing to work on this. We are saying that the car is responsible when it's unsupervised. The driver is not in the loop. But there comes a time when there needs to be a handover. That situation is critical so we are working very hard to define how to do this as seamlessly as possible. We are also working on what the car has to do if the handover is not working according to plan. How much time should we give the driver to re-take control? These are questions that we are working on.

Does Volvo want lidar to become standard in all SPA2 cars?
We are taking this in steps. The first step that we are announcing today is that we have designed the platform so that lidar can be included in any of the cars built on the SPA2 platform. We see lidar starting as an option; therefore, we don't see this being standard in the first couple of years. One reason for this is the geographical limitations. It will not be possible to immediately get the full advantage of the lidar in all countries. Also, adding Highway Pilot packs in a significant amount of technology that along with lidar includes extra computing power, redundant brakes and more. It's a hefty technology package, but we believe it will offer very unique, high-value customer functionality that people will be happy to pay for. That is why it will be sold as an option at first. In the future, however, we want to work together with Luminar to determine how we can offer the lidar, as well as the software that we develop to provide highway pilot functionality, to a wider number of vehicles to improve their overall active safety. We would like to expand this technology to as many cars as possible in the future.

Is lidar now a crucial part of Volvo’s aim to have zero fatalities and injuries in its new vehicles?
That isn't how it started. Lidar came to us as a technology to realize unsupervised highway driving. Now we have come to realize that it could play a very interesting role in increasing the active safety capability of a broader range of vehicles.

Will you need extra power to run the lidar and other systems needed to make unsupervised driving work?
This is primarily intended for full-electric vehicles so the availability of battery power should not be a problem.

The autonomous drive software comes from Zenuity, right?
Yes, that's correct. The software for SPA2 will come from the new Zenuity that will be owned by Volvo Cars.

Was there any cross pollination from your work with Uber during this process?
There was no direct collaboration with Uber on lidar technology. With Uber we are working to prepare the vehicle for the self-driving computer and sensor system. That is how we learned to develop the redundant brake system, how to deal with steering and more. That will be used in this context [for unsupervised highway driving].