Say hello to Highway Pilot – autonomous drive mode for freeway cruising
Highway Pilot is the name of Volvo Cars’ first autonomous drive technology, to be introduced on its next generation cars and for use on highways as an optional functionality.
The Swedish company has chosen to introduce autonomous driving on highways first for two main reasons. The first being that the driving experience on highways is considered to be one of the least enjoyable parts for their customers, especially as these roads are where many accidents occur. Secondly, the clearly sectioned type of driving allows for Volvo and its partners to focus on solving operations for autonomous cars in a restricted area.
Highway Pilot is part of the company’s One Pilot strategy which aims to offer customers one experience throughout their journey, supporting them in three modes – Drive, Cruise and Ride:
In Drive, the technologies help the driver to avoid collisions by providing information, warnings and steering interventions, and braking automatically.
In Cruise, the technologies provide relief by controlling the vehicle motion under driver supervision while maintaining the same level of safety as in Drive.
In Ride, the user is free to do other things behind the steering wheel while the car is self driving without supervision. Ride is offered in limited use cases that will be gradually expanded, starting with highways (Highway Pilot).
Volvo is looking to take its safety vision to the next level and aims for a future with zero collisions. The development of autonomous drive technologies is anticipated to make the safety systems more and more capable of achieving this vision in the future.
Source: Volvo
