Thursday 19 January 2017

Meet the First Real Family Slated to Get Keys to Volvo’s Self-Driving XC90

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Volvo Drive Me autonomous XC90

Volvo did away with the usual script during its time slot last week at the Detroit auto show. Instead of the customary unveiling of a new vehicle on its stage, the luxury carmaker unveiled a family.

Stepping out of Sweden and into the spotlight were the Hains, a family of four who live near Volvo’s global headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. They’re the first people enrolled in the company’s Drive Me program, a pilot project set up to analyze the interactions between autonomous technologies and human motorists. When they hit the road later this year in the properly equipped Volvo XC90, Alex, Paula, and their daughters, Filippa, 16, and Smilla, 13, may be the first ordinary people in the world to get keys to a self-driving car.

The novelty of the technology aside, the family members say they are not necessarily eager to be public-road guinea pigs. They’re more interested in getting a glimpse of how autonomous cars might augment their lives by easing commutes and aiding the always delicate balance of work and leisure time. Both parents work, and their children are active in school activities and sports. “I think a self-driving car would add one thing to my life, and that’s time,” said Alex, an IT manager.

The Hains’ appearance in Detroit served as a formal kickoff for the Drive Me program and underscored Volvo’s efforts to focus attention on one area of autonomous development that its leaders feel has been overlooked.

Volvo Drive Me research route Hain XC90 autonomous

“We are not standing there waving a chipboard and saying this is all about technology,” said Lex Kerssemakers, Volvo Car USA’s CEO. That approach, in the wake of the CES technology show last month, puts Volvo in lonely company. “In the end, we believe it’s all about people,” he said, “and those people are going to give us more insight on how they use the car. That’s why we want to put them in the spotlight.”

Scheduled to last for up to one year, the Drive Me program will encompass 100 cars equipped for Level 4 autonomous operation, in which self-driving systems do the driving and human occupants need not worry about monitoring the vehicle or potentially needing to retake control. That’s not a carte-blanche approach: Those operations will occur in certain geofenced areas in and around Gothenburg that Volvo has already mapped.

The Hains are the first to enroll, and now Volvo says it has started a formal process to fill the remaining spots in the program. Trent Victor, the company’s senior technical leader for safety and crash avoidance, said he wants a wide range of participants that encompasses different genders, ages, and lifestyles. Volvo wants people who are both early adopters, like the Hains, and those who are wary of autonomous cars. One basic requirement, which perhaps seems obvious on its face, is that participants use cars as part of their everyday habits.

The Hain family of Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Hain family of Gothenburg, Sweden.

“We’ll be asking them if they’ve had experience with adaptive cruise control, for example, or if they’re hesitant toward the technology,” Victor said. “Based on what they’re answering, we’ll select from that to get a sample that’s representative.”

Although a few of the Drive Me vehicles have been displayed in public with prominent logos, the cars that actually hit the road in November or December will not contain any signage that betrays their special status. Volvo wants the cars to blend in with the rest of road traffic.

In addition to cameras that are used as part of the autonomous system, Volvo researchers have outfitted the Drive Me XC90s with seven additional cameras that aren’t part of production vehicles. Those cameras face both forward and rearward. Another camera, located in the A-pillar, tracks eye movements of the driver; and still another, placed at foot level, watches how drivers use their pedals. Interviews will be conducted with participants throughout their experiences. Collectively, vehicle data, video footage, and interview responses will be used to gauge how vehicle occupants interact with autonomous technology.

“We are not standing there waving a chipboard and saying this is all about technology.”
– Lex Kerssemakers, Volvo Car USA

That’s already a challenge seen on the road today. In the development of current driver-assist features, like Volvo’s IntelliSafe, that are on production vehicles, “we have to develop methods to improve safety and make sure that people don’t overtrust systems that are supervised automation, where they think it does more than it does,” Victor said. In a full-autonomy program like Drive Me, though, that problem reverses. “We need to make sure they don’t undertrust unsupervised automation,” he said.

The project is not entirely focused on the interaction between human and machine. In part, Volvo is interested in figuring out what occupants like the Hains want to do in their cars when time once spent driving can be used for other things. Volvo has already been thinking about that. In 2014, it showcased Concept 26, a project that provided drivers with three potential cabin configurations, including a reclining seat and a retracting steering wheel, based on whether they are driving, working, or relaxing. In 2015, Volvo partnered with Swedish telecom giant Ericsson to develop higher bandwidth for in-vehicle streaming. And last month, Volvo announced an agreement with Microsoft to put Skype conference-call functionality into its 90-series cars.

Volvo autonomous XC90 Drive Me

Drive Me participants are expected to hit the road in November or December in Gothenburg. Soon after that, concurrent Drive Me pilot projects are slated to begin in London and China, although those timeframes are not yet finalized. At least for now, Kerssemakers says no North American projects are planned, because the company already is developing its hardware in a joint project with ride-hailing service Uber.

Drive Me serves as one of three linchpins in Volvo’s overall strategy to deploy fully autonomous vehicles on public roads by 2021. The company is developing XC90s suited for autonomous systems in its partnership with Uber. Separately, it is pursuing software advances for advanced safety systems and autonomous driving with Zenuity, a new company that draws resources both from Volvo and automotive supplier Autoliv.

“The main thing is really that there’s been a tech race, and everybody has been talking about the technology,” Victor said. “But we’re trying to understand the usage and optimize that. I think there’s lot to be learned about the way people are using these cars and how we take care of these different types of people. Whether they’re hesitant or lead users, we need to offer a safe solution for many different types.”

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