(Economy) Automotive safety company Autoliv and Volvo Cars have formed a joint company to better create one of the industry’s hottest concepts – self driving cars. Competitors include Tesla, Apple and Google, but the new Swedish company is confident no one can beat them when it comes to safety.

Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, said: “By combining our know how and resources we will create a world leader in AD software development. This means we can introduce this exciting technology to our customers faster.” (Volvo is partly already there; turn to dashboard, pages 16-17 to find out how to travel driverless in Pittsburgh, PA already.)
“There are no two companies that can claim to have done more for automotive safety worldwide than Autoliv and Volvo. This new company is a recognition of the fact that autonomous driving is the next step to transform road safety,” Jan Carlson, chairman, chief executive and president of Autoliv, said.

The planned new company will have its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, and an initial workforce taken from both companies of around 200, increasing to over 600 in the medium term. According to the press release, the first product is expected on the market in 2021.