Autoliv, a leading automotive safety system supplier, has joined Sweden’s “Drive Me” autonomous driving project, a research collaboration involving industry, government and academia.

As part of the project, 100 self-driving Volvo cars will be released on public roads in Gothenburg, Sweden, under everyday driving conditions.

Autoliv joins Volvo Car Group, the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg on the research project.

“The Drive Me project is a great chance for us to join forces with key stakeholders in Sweden to strengthen our work within autonomous driving,” said Jan Carlson, Autoliv CEO. “The automotive fleet of tomorrow will be characterized by integrated active and passive safety systems, which have to operate with complete safety and in harmony. This is the key knowledge with which Autoliv will contribute within this essential project.”   

The project launched in 2013, but the public pilot is scheduled to start in 2017. In February, Volvo Cars presented a system solution for integrating self-driving cars into real traffic.

“Autonomous driving will make our roads better and safer,” said Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars president and chief executive. “The sooner we can develop the necessary technologies and start offering them in our cars the better.”

Volvo and Autoliv will “work together to share research and development into the latest safety technologies, and engineers and other industry experts from both companies will collaborate to push forward the introduction of active safety systems,” Volvo said in a released statement.