The self-driving car is almost here: Volvo latest to unveil its version
Imagine reclining and reading a book in the driver鈥檚 seat of your car while it navigates its way through the quagmire of a morning commute. Volvo said its autonomous car, for now called Concept 26 for the number of minutes it takes the average commuter to get to work, will soon offer this luxury.
The Swedish automaker unveiled the sleek interior design of the new model at the Los Angeles Auto show this week. It said聽聽on the roads of Gothenburg, Sweden in 2017, reported ComputerWorld.
鈥淚n today鈥檚 world, everybody is stressed for time,鈥� explains Volvo鈥檚 advanced concepts director Doug Frasher in聽.
He continues, 鈥淭ime has become that thing in life which you never have enough of,鈥� shortly before the video pans out from a stressed commuter to show that he鈥檚 stuck on a gridlocked highway near Los Angeles.
But then 鈥� in a setup designed to make the hearts of commuters soar 鈥撀� it leads into a scene showing a simulation of a man activating a feature on his steering wheel that prompts the car to drive itself as his ergonomic seat glides into a reclining position 聽
鈥淭his is what Concept 26 has captured by reimagining the entire car experience,鈥� Robin Page, vice president of interior design at Volvo, said.
Volvo鈥檚 concept car has three modes. "Drive" keeps the car in traditional, manual mode, while聽, slide the seat back to a slightly reclining 聽or a deeper 鈥渞elaxed鈥� reclining positions, and release a 25-inch flat-screen monitor from the dashboard. A control monitor in the center console slides back with the driver to give access to driving, navigation, and multimedia functions that include TV and movie controls.
The company has already launched some basic autonomous features that are on the roads in its XC90 model, which takes over the steering and speed to follow the car in front of it at speeds of up to 35 mph.
鈥淲e鈥檙e taking out the part of people鈥檚 commute that they don鈥檛 like,鈥澛犅爐old The New York times earlier this year. 鈥淓ven people who normally like to drive have told us they want the autonomous part for the more boring parts of their commute. So we鈥檙e giving it to them.鈥�
Other car makers have smart cars that have some ability to drive themselves on the roads already. For instance, the 2013 Mercedes-Benz GL聽聽and the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu has collision warning with聽.
Google has been at the forefront of the movement聽toward fully autonomous cars, reported 海角大神 recently. It鈥檚 been testing driverless cars on public roads since 2012 and says that the cars could be ready by 2018. General Motors has been working on computer-driven vehicles for the past decade, as have Toyota, Tesla, Uber, and Apple.
