April 30, 2014—Volvo Car Group and Google on Tuesday announced that they have begun testing self-driving cars on city streets, according to statements from both companies.
Google said that after several years of testing self-driving vehicles on freeways, it has shifted its focus to city streets, where driving conditions are less predictable.
Volvo said that it has begun testing 100 cars on the streets near its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
“The test cars are now able to handle lane following, speed adaption and merging traffic all by themselves," Erik Coelingh, technical specialist at Volvo, said in the statement. "This is an important step towards our aim that the final ‘Drive Me’ cars will be able to drive the whole test route in highly autonomous mode. The technology, which will be called Autopilot, enables the driver to hand over the driving to the vehicle, which takes care of all driving functions.”
Google said it has driven thousands of miles on the streets of Mountain View, Calif., near its headquarters.
The company also posted a video that depicted how a self-driving car views the world.
