Swedish premium automaker Volvo Cars has agreed to provide cars to the autonomous driving technology unit of China’s top ride-hailing firm, Didi Chuxing, for its self-driving test fleet.
Volvo will equip its XC90 SUVs with backup steering and braking systems, which DiDi Autonomous Driving will combine with Didi Gemini, the company’s latest self-driving hardware platform. Didi is currently preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) with a market capitalization of at least $100 billion.
Cruise, a self-driving startup backed by US-based General Motors Company, said that it had raised $2.75 billion in its latest funding round from investors including American retail giant Walmart, bringing its value to over $30 billion.
Volvo Cars’ Head of Strategy Mr. Alexander Petrofski remarked that the company would initially provide Didi with hundreds of vehicles and will add more as the self-driving test fleet expands.
“For us, this is a tremendous opportunity because we gain real-world know-how and get to test our vehicles in a real-world environment. This is something we will benefit from when we start rolling out this technology in applications for our customers,” Mr. Petrofski added. He confirmed that a few of the vehicles have already been delivered to Didi.
Volvo started supplying test vehicles to American Uber’s self-driving unit in 2016. Last year, Uber sold its company to Aurora, a self-driving car startup which continues to use Volvo vehicles.
Volvo’s Head of Autonomous Driving Strategy, Mr. Johan Taws pointed out that “this (new agreement with Didi) is in line with our vision to be the partner of choice on a global level.”
Volvo claims that the built-in backup systems and safety features on its XC90 cars, combined with Didi’s self-driving system, would eventually enable the cars to operate in robotaxi services without the need for safe drivers.
