Volvo autonomous cars 'on the road by 2017'

It has been a busy week for Swedish car-manufacturer Volvo, who not only partnered up with Microsoft HoloLens but also unveiled their latest self-driving car, Concept 26.

Published: November 20, 2015 at 12:00 pm

It has been a busy week for Swedish car-manufacturer Volvo, who not only partnered up with Microsoft HoloLens to bring virtual reality to the car buying and production stages, but also unveiled their latest self-driving car, called Concept 26.

Apparently, on averageit takes26 minutes to commute to work, most of which is stuck in traffic, and Volvo believes that that you could be using your commuting time more “creatively” by being able to “sit back and relax, watch online media or listen to music.”

Lofty goals indeed, so how do Volvo envision such a joyous commute? Well the video above doesn’t really go into any specifics, other than the fact it looks delightful and stress-free. It even has three modes, Drive, Create or Relax(they are really hammering home the creative experience).

Despite the luxurious driving experience, Volvo is putting its money where its exhaust is when it comes to safety. “We firmly believes that car makers should take full responsibility for the actions of the car when it is driving in full autonomous mode,” says Dr Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President Research and Development at Volvo Car Group. “If a manufacturer does not accept liability it clearly implies that they are not confident about their autonomous drive technology.”

A further sign if confidence from the makers of the world’s safest car is that they plan to have autonomous cars scooting around the streets of Gothenburg by 2017 (although this could be only as many as 100 cars, according to Wired).

We got our hands behind the wheel of a Tesla recently and tested out their self-driving equivalent, Autopilot. Although we can’t imagine getting too creative and penning the next War and Peace on our 26-minnute commute, once you got used to the idea of the car driving itself, it definitely takes some of the stress away from trundling down the M4.

Over to you Sweden…

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