On Saturday 7th November 2015, in an Australian first, Volvo successfully tested two of its XC90 vehicles at speeds of up to 70km/h on a closed section of Adelaide’s Southern Expressway. This was carried out under the initiative of the South Australian Government.
During this demonstration, the Volvo XC-90 underwent an array of exercises including automatic lane keeping, adaptive cruise control and active queue assist, while being supervised by Trent Victor, trained Volvo operator.
It travelled alongside a pace car to simulate traffic flow to show first-hand how the driverless vehicle technology interacts with other road users and adapts to changing conditions.
Almost all major car manufacturers are working on driverless cars including General Motors, BMW, Audi, Ford, Mercedes, Renault and tech giant Google, so this will affect us all.
It is predicted that within just 15 years, the international driverless car industry will be worth $90 billion.
Driverless cars are expected to appear on Australian roads by 2020.
