Volvo Bags Order From Uber For 100 Self-driving Vehicles 

New York: Swedish automobile major Volvo on Wednesday said it received a major order for 100 self-driving vehicles from the ride-hailing giant Uber. The news came as an 18-wheeler self-driving Volvo trailer drove from Fort Collins, Colorado, to Colorado Springs, bearing 50,000 cans of Budweiser beer. The Volvo truck, equipped with cameras and sensors, was owned by Otto, a self-driving truck company acquired by Uber recently.

Uber inked a deal with Volvo in August to purchase 100 cars by the end of the year, with the goal of outfitting them with the ride-hail company's autonomous hardware. The cars are built on Volvo's Scalable Product Architecture, the same platform as its XC90, S90, and V90 cars.

Uber's small fleet of self-driving Ford Fusion cars has been shepherding a select number of passengers around Pittsburgh since early September, but so far Uber has declined to discuss the progress. The cars have Uber stenciled on the sides and an array of cameras and sensors on the roof like a jaunty hat.

Uber’s self-driving truck company just completed its first shipment of 50,000 cans of Budweiser on October 20. Its 18-wheeler tractor trailer pulled into Colorado Springs, Colorado, bearing 50,000 frosty cans of Budweiser beer. Normally, this would not be a noteworthy occurrence, but this truck was driving itself, marking the first time that commercial cargo was shipped by a self-driving vehicle, which began 120 miles away at an Anheuser-Busch facility in Loveland, Colorado.

The truck, a Volvo big rig equipped with cameras and sensors was one of five owned by Otto, a San Francisco-based self-driving truck company acquired by Uber in August. A human driver piloted the truck to a weigh station in Fort Collins. From there, it drove 100 miles without human intervention to Colorado Springs, with the driver monitoring the two-hour trip from the sleeper berth. But once it entered the city limits, the driver took control.

Source: IANS