Trying to Bypass Anxiety on the Road to Driverless Cars
Automakers like Volvo — which since 2010 has been owned by Geely Holding of China — have fretted over the challenge of managing the interaction between a human driver
and a car capable of driving itself, especially in critical moments when the driver needs to resume control of the vehicle.
The aim is to gather data that will help Volvo develop fully autonomous cars for highway use by
2021, Marcus Rothoff, a Volvo executive heading the project, said at an event here Monday.
It does not require drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel — instead employing a camera to make sure the driver’s eyes are on the road.
“We need to make a car that people trust and have confidence in.”
The XC90 sport-utility vehicles involved are equipped with sensors and cameras
that monitor the eyes, faces and feet of the person in the driver’s seat.
GOTEBORG, Sweden — One of the big unknowns about self-driving cars is how human drivers will react once they can hand off the tasks of steering, braking
and avoiding obstacles to a combination of unseen sensors, software and computer chips under the hood.
Understanding the variations in human behavior is essential for Volvo, said Trent Victor, senior technical leader in crash avoidance
and an adjunct professor of driving behavior at Chalmers University in Goteborg.
