The Volvo Group has created a new business area to accelerate the development, commercialization and sales of autonomous transport solutions.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions – which will debut Jan. 1, 2020 and will be reported financially as part of Volvo’s truck segment – enables the Volvo Group to meet growing demand and to offer solutions to customers in such segments as mining, ports and transport between logistics centers, as a complement to today’s products and services.
“We have experienced a significant increase in inquiries from customers,” said Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO. “With the Volvo Group’s wide range of offerings and broad experience of different applications, we have a unique opportunity to offer solutions that meet their specific needs. 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 Volvo Group has already demonstrated a number of different autonomous transport solutions.
In the Electric Site project, material handling in a quarry was automated and electrified. The result was a safer working environment and a reduction of operator costs by 40 percent and of carbon dioxide emissions by 98 percent.
At the Brønnøy Kalk mine in Norway, autonomous Volvo FH trucks will be used in commercial operation to transport limestone along a five-kilometer stretch.
Another pioneering initiative is the self-driving, connected and electric vehicle Vera. In its first assignment Vera will form part of an integrated solution to transport goods from a logistics center to a port terminal in Gothenburg, Sweden.
