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Aurora, Volvo partner on self-driving heavy trucks

Global heavy truck manufacturers are lining up technology partners to help build out self-driving systems for long-haul freight that could see widespread commercial service well before self-driving robotaxis. The latest alliance was announced Tuesday between Sweden's Volvo Group and California-based Aurora Innovation, building on a working relationship that dates back several years, the partners said. Analysts expect more such partnerships, as relatively young technology firms such as Aurora connect their autonomous vehicle systems knowledge with the deep manufacturing experience of legacy companies such as Volvo Trucks. “You can't go at it alone in autonomy," said Grayson Brulte, president consultancy Brulte & Company. "The trucking industry is a completely different personality" than the passenger vehicle business, with different requirements. Most of the larger truck manufacturers have turned to self-driving tech partners, driven in part by a chronic shortage of drivers and a boom in e-commerce, fueled by the global pandemic. In January, Aurora announced a strategic partnership with U.S. truckmaker PACCAR, whose brands include Peterbilt and Kenworth. Aurora's founders include self-driving veterans from Tesla and Alphabet's Waymo. Aurora last year said its first commercial product would be in trucking "where the market is largest (and) the unit economics are best." In 2020, Waymo Chief Executive John Krafcik told Reuters that "goods delivery is a bigger market than moving people" as Waymo expanded its focus to include heavy trucks. Germany's Daimler has formed a self-driving truck alliance with Waymo, while China's largest heavy truck maker, FAW Jiefang, has partnered with Plus AI. Volkswagen's Traton truck group is an investor in TuSimple, as is U.S. truckmaker Navistar. In a January earnings call, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the long-delayed Semi electric truck is highly likely to be the first of the company's vehicles to achieve full self-driving capability. Green Volvo Truck Autonomous Vehicles Commercial Vehicles volvo trucks Aurora

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Volvo 240 DL Sedan

The most iconic of all the Volvos — all the Swedish cars, for that matter — sold in the United States is and always will be the brick-shaped 200 series, which could be purchased new here from the 1975 model year all the way through 1993. Though it was an evolution of the earlier 140 series and looked nearly identical to its ancestor from any rear angle, the 240 (and, to a much lesser extent, 260) remains the most recognizable Volvo ever made. Because these cars were quite sturdy and inspired such devotion from their owners, plenty of them remain on the road to this dayÂ… and that means plenty of them wear out every year and end up taking that final tow-truck ride to the boneyard. Here's a bread-and-butter mid-1980s 244, with the sensible four-on-the-floor overdrive manual transmission and well-oxidized Richelieu Red paint, found in a self-service yard near Denver, Colorado. Prior to the 1980 model year, U.S.-market Volvo 200s were named according to a very logical system: the model name was a three-digit number, with the first digit indicating the car series, the second digit representing the number of engine cylinders, and the third digit showing the number of doors. Typically, the trim level would come after that. Just to confuse everyone, Volvo did away with everything but the trim levels when identifying these cars. Thus, this car would have been badged as a 244 DL during the 1975-1979 period, but for the first half of the 1980s it was called simply the Volvo DL. Of course, everyone who knows old Volvos today just calls this a 244, period. DL stood for Deluxe, so of course it was the cheapest trim level. The list price on this car started at $11,085, or about $31,090 in 2021 dollars. That was cheaper than a new BMW 320i ($13,290 or $37,275 now), but more expensive than more luxurious and powerful Japanese competitors such as the Datsun 810 Maxima by Nissan ($10,869 or $30,485 today) and Mazda 626 Luxury Sedan ($8,895 or $24,950 today). If you insisted on an automatic transmission in your '83 DL sedan, the price tag went up an additional 390 bucks, or about $1,094 now. This car has the base four-speed manual with the overdrive actuated by a switch on the shift knob. With 107 horsepower from this 2.3-liter straight-four engine, this car wasn't particularly quick. However, it weighed less than 3,000 pounds (despite its blocky appearance), so it got out of its own way well enough when equipped with a manual transmission.

2015 Volvo XC90 mule spotted testing in the snow

The Volvo XC90 was a big step for the Swedish automaker in 2003, but the midsize crossover has changed very little since its introduction. All that's about to change as Volvo starts its initial development on the 2015 XC90, which we see for the first time in these spy shots showing a cobbled-together XC70.
Like the current XC90, the next-generation model will be both longer and wider than the XC70 - judging by the modifications made to this mule's body - which will continue to allow Volvo's flagship crossover and provide three rows of seating. The next XC90 will ride on a new platform that will eventually make up around two-thirds of all Volvo sales, called the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA).
Our shooter managed to find out the registration number for this mule, which indicated that it was powered by a five-cylinder diesel, but we expect the automaker to start stepping away from its current powertrains with a big push toward smaller engines courtesy of the new Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA). Rumor has it that the future engine lineup for the XC90 will rely heavily on turbocharged four-cylinder engines and eight-speed automatic transmissions, which will likely eliminate or lessen some of the current mills available like a straight-six or V8.