Volvo launches autonomous vehicles business area

The Swedish automotive major says that it sees opportunities for autonomy in vehicles for transporting materials and goods in the mining, ports and logistics sectors.

“We have experienced a significant increase in inquiries from customers,” said president and chief executive Martin Lundstedt. “It is a logical next step for us to gather expertise and resources in a new business area with profit and loss responsibility to take autonomous transport solutions to the next level.”

The company notes that transport in these sectors tends to move large volumes of material along pre-defined and repetitive routes, and that is therefore well suited to autonomous solutions which can improve flexibility, delivery precision and productivity. The new business area will therefore be part of Volvo’s trucks segment.

Volvo already has three ongoing projects investigating autonomy in large commercial vehicles. The Electric Site project, a collaboration between Volvo Construction Equipment and its client Skanska, aims to electrify each transport stage in a quarry, from excavation to primary crushing, and transports to secondary crushing.