BORN TO DRIVE Prototype Allows Vehicles To Deliver Themselves

The first large scale use of “Autonomous” or driverless vehicles will probably not involve any passengers either.

Before a brand new car gets to its first owner, the average vehicle is moved 25 times … from the assembly line to transport to storage to distribution transport to final dealership delivery.

Swedish tech company Semcon is running real world trials of a new software program called BORN TO DRIVE that allows new car fleets to deliver themselves through the steps of the distribution chain.

A currently operating prototype of the BORN TO DRIVE system is the result of a collaboration between the Swedish Government, Semcon and seven other companies including Volvo Cars.

With the global production of 80 million vehicles annually the potential savings is realistically in the $30 to $50 billion range industry-wide.

Also it would be the most practical and safe first large-scale application of autonomous vehicle technology since all of these vehicle movements are done inside closed manufacturing, storage or shipping environments.

This technology is particularly exciting because it is a pure front end and back end software solution that could be implemented very quickly and can be further refined to eventually get vehicles from the manufacturing floor to dealer showrooms with minimal human intervention. The onboard technology to make this system work is already incorporated into new vehicles.