Volvo and Uber recently announced a deepening of the alliance between the two companies as the ride-sharing technology prepares to expand its self-driving pilot to San Francisco. The pilot will include specially converted self-driving Volvo XC90 premium SUVs.
In August 2016, Volvo and Uber established a jointly-owned project to build base vehicles that can be used to develop fully autonomous driverless cars. Initial testing took place in Pittsburgh, PA. For the San Francisco project, Uber purchased the XC90 SUVs from Volvo and outfitted them with its own self-driving hardware and software packages, most visibly in the roof-mounted control apparatus seen in the video, below.
The alliance is one aspect of Volvo's multi-part autonomous driving development plan, which includes a joint venture with leading automotive safety technology company, Autoliv, to "design and manufacturer separately-branded AD and driver assistance software technology packages for sale to third party OEMs.
“The promise of self-driving ride sharing is becoming a reality,” said Mårten Levenstam, vice president product planning at Volvo Cars. “Volvo is proud to be at the forefront of the latest developments in the automotive world alongside our partners at Uber.”