The Volvo VNL Autonomous – Proving the Way Forward

Purpose designed and built for autonomy; the fully redundant truck will enable autonomous transport

Greensboro, N.C., May 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Volvo Autonomous Solutions (V.A.S.) today unveiled Volvo’s first-ever production ready autonomous truck at the Advanced Clean Transporation (ACT) Expo in Las Vegas. The Volvo VNL Autonomous brings together Volvo’s commercial vehicle expertise with industry-leading autonomous driving technology from Aurora Innovation (Nasdaq: AUR). The result is a purpose-designed and purpose-built autonomous truck that will be the key enabler to increasing freight capacity across the United States.

“We are at the forefront of a new way to transport goods, complementing and enhancing transportation capacity, and thereby enabling trade and societal growth,” states Nils Jaeger, President of Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “This truck is the first of our standardized global autonomous technology platform, which will enable us to introduce additional models in the future, bringing autonomy to all Volvo Group truck brands, and to other geographies and use cases.”

The platform-based design approach will enable Volvo to use its in-house developed virtual driver for trucks and machines working within confined applications and partner virtual driving technologies for on-highway trucking applications.

Guided by Safety with Robust Redundancy 

Volvo Autonomous Solutions is dedicated to tackling the transportation industry’s capacity constraints through safe, sustainable, and efficient autonomous transport solutions. True to the Volvo DNA, every design and engineering decision for the new Volvo VNL Autonomous has been made with safety in mind. The Volvo VNL Autonomous therefore has redundant steering, braking, communication, computation, power management, energy storage and vehicle motion management systems.

“Our platform engineering approach prioritizes safety by incorporating high-assurance redundancy systems designed to mitigate potential emergency situations,” said Shahrukh Kazmi, Chief Product Officer at Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “We built the Volvo VNL Autonomous from the ground up, integrating these redundancy systems to ensure that every safety-critical component is intentionally duplicated, thereby significantly enhancing both safety and reliability.”