The China-based Geely-owned Volvo will work on introducing its future vehicles with Level 4 autonomous driving technology, and the first one to get it is the 2021 Volvo XC90 SUV. Volvo will introduce the XC90 with 4 autonomous driving technologies by 2021 and will be built at the company's new assembly plant near Charleston, South Carolina. The company recently unveiled the all new Volvo S60 at its new plant in the US, which will also manufacture future Volvo products for the company as the Donald Trump administration increased the tariffs on imported products.
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However, the company also said that it will take some time before it is prepared to roll out level 4 autonomous driving features, as Volvo is developing the Highway Assist feature on its future models. Volvo will not offer the new autonomous driving feature unless the highway assist feature is ticked off the list of requirements. Moreover, the company has also tied up with cab sharing aggregator, Uber to work on the complex technology for its future models. On the other hand, as the name suggest, the Highway Assist feature will only work on certain mapped roads, and hence the XC90 will not get the full level 4 autonomous driving system.
Also Read: Volvo Opens Its First Ever Manufacturing Facility In USA
Volvo Cars is investing around $1.1 billion in its US manufacturing operations and will create around 4,000 new jobs at the Charleston site over the coming years. Approximately 1,500 staff will be employed by the end of this year.
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The new Charleston facility includes an office building for up to 300 staff from R&D, purchasing, quality and sales. The plant can produce 150,000 cars per year at full capacity. The site occupies 1,600 acres and the building space covers 2.3 million square feet. Construction on the facility broke ground in 2015.
The company will also build plug-in hybrid cars at all of its car plants globally. In 2017, Volvo Cars was the first global car maker to announce its strategy that from 2019 all new models will be electrified.
