Volvo to put 100 self-driving cars on congested Chinese roads

Volvo is aiming to put up to 100 self-driving cars on the roads in China in the hope that testing them on the country's notoriously congested, hazardous roads will enable the carmaker to pull ahead in the race to develop autonomous vehicles technologies.

Pioneered by Google and other tech companies, autonomous driving is becoming one of the most disruptive forces in the auto industry, and carmakers are positioning themselves accordingly.

General Motors' $1 billion (€878m) purchase last month of driverless car start-up Cruise and Tesla's new sensors-packed Model 3 suggest that companies now consider themselves not just in the business of making cars, but of providing "mobility".

But getting driverless vehicles on the road faces legal, technical and social challenges. Even BMW, which was one of the first to invest in such technology, has downplayed the chances of seeing unrestricted driverless vehicles in action this decade.

Unique conditions

Volvo, the Swedish company now owned by Chinese carmaker Geely, is hoping the unique traffic and legislative conditions in China might allow it to overcome these challenges ahead of rivals.

Chinese cities will bid for a chance to take part in the experiment, where drivers would use Volvo’s autonomous vehicles for their daily commutes, enabling the carmaker to gather real-world data, Volvo said on Thursday.

Volvo has not announced a timeframe, but a parallel trial to be run in Gothenburg, Sweden, is slated to begin in 2017.

Industry experts say driverless technology has added value in China, given its uniquely painful combination of extreme pollution and a terrible safety record — more than 200,000 people died in road accidents in China last year.

Government support

Government support is also key. Patchwork legislation, a potential obstacle for development in Europe and the US, is less of an issue in China, where authorities have the power to put blanket regulations into place across the country.

Geely and Baidu, the Chinese search engine, have both been lobbying the government to develop such a framework. Volvo said its planned experiment is a call for the government to translate into action its “forthright language” on promises of commitment to autonomous vehicle development.

"Governments need to put in legislation to allow AD [autonomous driving] cars on to the streets as soon as possible," said Hakan Samuelsson, president of Volvo. "The car industry cannot do it all by itself."

Baidu, which is working with BMW with the goal of getting autonomous vehicles on to China’s roads within three years, has secured local government support in the development of pilot projects in several Chinese cities.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016