Volvo says its self-driving cars better than a short-haul flight
The Chinese-owned, Sweden-based car maker is mulling an IPO and predicts autonomous, electric vehicles will make up a third of its deliveries by 2025
Stockholm — Volvo Cars is taking aim at the aviation industry, saying self-driving vehicles could eliminate the need for some short-haul flights. On Wednesday, the Sweden-based car maker unveiled a project to explore how autonomous vehicles can be used to shuttle people between cities, allowing them more time for rest, work and play instead of the hassle of flying. "Domestic air travel sounds great when you buy your ticket, but it really isn’t," Mårten Levenstam, senior vice-president of corporate strategy at Volvo Cars, said in a statement. Autonomous cars with sleeping cabins "could enable us to compete with the world’s leading aircraft makers". Air travel routes of about 300km are "prime candidates for disruption", the company said. That’s just less than the distance between New York and Boston, which is a busy aviation corridor. Of course, an increase in road travel has its own potential downsides, such as traffic congestion. Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding, ...
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