Developing Autonomous Car Technology, DiDi Chuxing Collaborates With Volvo

Illustrations Volvo XC90. (Wikimedia Commons / Albin Olsson)

JAKARTA - Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo Cars announced that it has signed a car supply agreement for the autonomous driving technology unit of China's online transportation company, Didi Chuxing, for an autonomous driving test, Monday, April 19.

The plan is for Volvo to provide the XC90 SUV equipped with a backup steering and braking system that DiDi Autonomous Driving integrates with Didi Gemini, its new self-driving hardware platform.

Volvo Cars, which is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd., China, will initially provide Didi with hundreds of vehicles, which will add to the development of the next autonomous test, said Volvo Head of Strategy and Business Ownership Alexander Petrofski.

"For us, this is an extraordinary opportunity, because we gain real-world knowledge and test our vehicles in a real world environment", said Petrofski, told Reuters.

"This is something we will take advantage of when we start rolling out this in-app technology to our customers", he added, adding that several vehicles had already been delivered to Didi.

It is known that Volvo began providing test cars for Uber's autonomous drive units in 2016. Uber Technologies Inc., sold the business to driverless car startup Aurora last year and is still using Volvo vehicles.

"This (new agreement with DiDi) is in line with our vision to be the partner of choice at the global level for self-driving fleets, said Volvo's Head of Autonomous Driving Strategy Johan Taws.

In the future, the built-in backup system and safety features on the Volvo XC90 car, combined with the Didi self-driving system, will ultimately allow the car to operate without a driver in robotaxi services.

"This strategic collaboration with DiDi Autonomous Driving is further validation of our ambition to be the partner of choice for the world's leading ride-hailing company", said Volvo Cars CEO Håkan Samuelsson in a statement, cited from Cnet.

"Combining DiDi's growing robotaxi program with our safe cars creates a perfect match for building trust among consumers for autonomous vehicle bookings", he added.

DiDi is known to be currently working on an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States with a valuation of at least USD 100 billion.