In the spirit of CES, Volvo says it is partnering with its hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, to put together what we will call a city of the future. Or, at least a mini example of what that will be. It will be called Gothenburg’s Green City Zone and it will consist of a number of new urban zones that Volvo will help design.
Why does Volvo help in designing a city? Infrastructure is increasingly important with the introduction of new vehicle technologies. These green zones will be ideal safe havens and test facilities for things like autonomous driving, connected vehicles, shared mobility solutions and electrification (ie charging points).
Volvo will test things like geo-enabled vehicle restrictions, where driving through a certain zone would force the vehicle to drive only electrically and to stay within the speed limits. In addition, the traffic infrastructure can be linked to active safety features in vehicles to share information between different road users in the name of safety. A substantial charging network is planned for electric vehicles, and there are also limited autonomous taxis (from Volvo’s mobility provider M) designed to roam the streets.
Since Volvo has been a major stakeholder in the urban areas from the start, it can ensure that the environment is friendly and responsive to them for all its technologies. Volvo says the transformations of the Gothenburg urban zone will begin in the spring of this year and increase over the months and years.
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