What should a robomobile driver do during a trip? Volvo knows what a robot can do for humans

Volvo experts estimate that the average American spends about 26 minutes on his way to work. It is approximately nine days a year. Accordingly, the return trip takes the same amount of time. Assuming cars suddenly become smart and capable of driving on their own, what should the car owner do at this time? Looking out the window? Boring. Listen to music? Also not an option. In general, the same company Volvo decided to show its vision of the future motorist who already drives the car.

The concept, dubbed the Concept 26, was shown at a car show in Los Angeles. At the same time, Volvo’s vision is different from the vision of the future “car-man” system from Mercedes, with the Mercedes F 015 concept  . Volvo’s idea is to let a person work or get ready for work while on the go, talk on the phone or, if there’s nothing positive, watch a series of your favorite series.

The results of research by Volvo experts also show that most motorists prefer to leave the usual car controls. Also, motorists sometimes prefer to steer themselves, rather than trust all their tasks to a computer system. Volvo concept looks into the near future - 5-10 years. In this future, probably, robotic cars will have problems like traffic jams, snow on the roads, obstacles, etc. Therefore, the motorist should be able to turn off the autonomous mode if a difficult situation arises that the computer cannot handle.

Volvo smart cars will communicate with the central server, requesting the possibility of enabling autonomous mode. The system will check whether everything is in order on the section of the track where the client’s car is now located and transmit all available information.



Volvo sees three driving modes. First, “Drive” is quite ordinary. This is a manual control.

The second mode is called Create. When activated, the driver's seat moves back (of course, there will be a check for passengers in the back seat), a multimedia panel opens, with a “tablet” in the center. The sensor system, to the right of the driver, will provide access to such functions as navigation, seating, climate control. Also on the central panel, you can display the playback of content from the tablet. Riding, enjoying a movie or reading.

The third mode is called Relax. Here, the seat leans back and the driver can watch TV or do nothing at all. Concept 26 shows the further evolution of Volvo seats, which are already some of the best.



In stand-alone mode, the dashboard changes, for example, some sensors are hiding (because why should a relaxed driver see how much gas is left there?). All the 26 minutes of the journey, the driver can do nothing, just relax. Before giving the driver control, the system will ask for his consent, and give 1-2 minutes to prepare for driving.