There have been articles since 2008 reporting that Volvo is manufacturing a driverless, crash-proof car. Significantly, the planned date for the vehicle to reach the market has never been kicked up the road from 2020, so either the automaker is continually fooling itself or production is still on target. More about the so-called “no-death cars” from Ray Massey at the Daily Mail:

“Car giant Volvo is developing ‘no death’ cars that drive themselves and are impossible to crash – ready for launch in showrooms within eight years.

The computerised vehicles will  be fitted with high-tech sensors and will ‘refuse to be steered’ into other objects.

Volvo says they will be  on sale to customers by 2020, but that some of the life-saving technology will be incorporated into its vehicles even earlier – from 2014 – it says.

Volvo’s head of government affairs Anders Eugensson said: ‘Our vision is that no one is killed or injured in a new Volvo by 2020.’

It is part of the race by leading car manufacturers including Volvo, Ford Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Vauxhall and even Google to build fully automomous ‘Robo-cars’ that can drive themselves – like the one which actor Will Smith drove in the sci-fi movie ‘I, Robot.’

The biggest hurdle is not the technology which is largely developed – but public acceptance of it and and issues of who would be liable if a crashproof car did actually crash: the driver or the manufacturer?

Volvo’s Mr Eugensson said;’We have tested prototypes on thousands of miles of test drives on public roads in Spain and on the company’s test track in western Sweden.

‘The car of the future will be like the farmer’s horse.’

‘The farmer can steer the horse and carriage but if he falls asleep the horse will refuse to walk into a tree or off a cliff.’”