It seems that future Volvo owners no longer need to worry about their cars going all “Rise of the Machines” on them and causing mayhem, because the Swedish manufacturer is willing to foot the bill for any damages.
Of course, for this to happen, any incidents would need to take place while the car’s autonomous mode was enabled, otherwise it’s money out of your pocket.
Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson told a small crowd at the Swedish embassy in Washington DC that Volvo would “accept full liability” if any of their cars are involved in accidents – as long as they’re at fault and operating autonomously.
As great as that sounds, other companies have also made similar statements; namely Mercedes-Benz and Google. This doesn’t take anything away from the message Volvo is trying to send their customers, especially since they’re also sticking to their zero fatalities plan by the year 2020.
In order for that to happen, Volvo’s fully autonomous mode will need to perfectly integrate systems such as auto-braking and other driver assists, and make judgement calls on the move, just like a human driver would.
It will be very interesting to see how quickly other car manufacturers will adopt the same mentality regarding their own autonomous projects. It’s a safe bet that, when autonomous cars become common, customers will favor an automaker who’s offering them a peace of mind.
Story references: caranddriver
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