Volvo to employ 100 vehicles in autonomous project

Swedish luxury auto brand Volvo, owned by the Chinese, is launching a project that will include what it calls the world's largest autonomous driving test.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday, Volvo President and CEO Hakan Samuelsson presented the keys to a Volvo XC90 with autonomous capabilities to the Hain family from Gothenburg, Sweden, as part of its "Drive Me" project.

The Hain family and their vehicle will be part of the 100 autonomous cars that are part of the project that will operate on the roads around Gothenburg, home to Volvo. "Drive Me" is a collaborative research program that the company believes is the most ambitious and extensive real-life autonomous drive project in existence.

Samuelsson said the key to getting the public to accept autonomous or self-driving cars is safety. "They must feel safe, and safety is part of our DNA at Volvo," he added.

Volvo is coming off a successful 2016 for a company that was struggling just seven years ago. Bought from Ford in 2010, Volvo has since been in an expansion mode under its owners, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd, whose ambitions include Volvo's first factory in the US.

"The plant is on schedule and we plan for the first cars to come out in the third quarter of 2018," Lex Kerssemakers, president and CEO of Volvo Cars North America said in an interview.

The plant, near Charleston, South Carolina, will produce the S60 sedan. "The plant will produce cars for all over the world. So it's not only for the US but the cars will also be exported to China and Europe," Kerssemakers said.

Volvo sales were solidly higher in 2016. The company sold about 534,000 vehicles globally up 6.2 percent from 2015, Samuelsson said. In China, sales increased 11.5 percent to about 91,000 while US sales advanced 18 percent to nearly 83,000.