Ever since the 60’s, Volvo has been leading the way when it comes to the development of new features of sustainability and safety. The latest development in that has been their unsupervised autonomous driving feature dubbed Ride Pilot, as well as a hefty investment in their Torslanda plant for fully electric car production.

While Tesla is the typical household name when it comes to autonomous driving and electrification, Volvo aims to change that. Their latest development is their Ride Pilot feature which will allow drivers to occupy themselves in other ways than focusing on the road. The testing process for this feature has already begun in Sweden, and by the end of this summer, aims to begin testing in the California.

Once Ride Pilot has been verified with the necessary approvals, Volvo plans to introduce the feature in California as the infrastructure and traffic patterns are favorable for the software. The feature will then gradually roll out to the rest of the world.

Ride Pilot is made possible by over two-dozen sensors including five radars, eight cameras, and sixteen ultrasonic sensors monitoring activity and objects around the car, as well as Volvo technology partner Luminar’s LiDAR sensor. Zenseact, an autonomous driving company, has helped Volvo’s in-house development team in the implementation and development of the Ride Pilot software.

At this point, you’re probably thinking to yourself about all the mishaps we’ve heard from Tesla’s getting into accidents after a driver has turned ON their autopilot feature and taken their attention OFF the road. Volvo reassures us that drivers will be able to be more productive with their time in the car, whether it’s with leisure, work, or even catching up on sleep. This is made possible by the rigorous testing done by Volvo Cars, advanced software and sensor technology, as well as the continuous OTA updates to keep drivers and passengers safe.

Ride Share will be available in the upcoming fully electric SUV offered by Volvo Cars. A car that will be the main driver for Volvo Cars’ investment in their Torslanda plant, as well as the company’s record sales the past year with over 30% being electric.

What do you think? Are we ready for this kind of tech? What about Polestar? Will they get the same features? Let us know in the comments of our social media post or send us an email!