Yahoo Finance Your Uber car could be driverless within 2 years
Your Uber could soon be taking you home without a driver after the company announced plans to buy 24,000 “driverless” cars.
The taxi hailing app firm has revealed a deal with Volvo to take thousands of XC90 4x4s from 2019.
It plans to have them on the roads – local laws permitting – in cities around the world soon after.
Uber and Volvo have not disclosed financial terms, but have confirmed it is a “non-exclusive” arrangement – meaning both are free to form similar partnerships with others.
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“Our aim is to be the supplier of choice for autonomous driving ride-sharing service providers globally,” said Volvo in a statement. “Today’s agreement with Uber is a primary example of that strategic direction.”
The cars are being made by Volvo’s Chinese parent company, Geely.
According to an estimate by the Financial Times, if Uber buys all 24,000 XC90 sports utility vehicles outlined in the agreement, the deal could be worth $1.4bn (£1.1bn).
The two companies have already carried out trial runs for autonomous Volvos in San Francisco and Pittsburgh.
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Local laws currently stipulate that a driver needs to be at the wheel, however.
UK chancellor Philip Hammond suggested at the weekend he was keen to see driverless cars on Britain’s roads by 2021.
Many commentators, including Grand Tour and former BBC Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, say full, driverless cars could be some way off.
Clarkson said the dangers were just too high. “I drove a car the other day which has a claim of autonomous capability and twice in the space of 50 miles on the M4 it made a mistake, a huge mistake, which could have resulted in death,” he wrote in the Sunday Times.
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The chancellor wants to relax UK laws to allow self-driving cars on British roads by 2021, boosting an industry which is predicted to be worth £28 billion by 2035 and provide 27,000 jobs.
“Some would say that’s a bold move, but we have to embrace these technologies if we want the UK to lead the next industrial revolution,” he said.
While many cities around the world are experimenting with autonomous vehicles, none has given the green light to allow cars without a human behind a wheel ready to intervene at the sign of trouble.
