Zenuity, a Swedish joint venture in autonomous driving technology, is split into two parts. One part will be led by Volvo, the other Veoneer will take the lead.
Zenuity started about three years ago as a joint venture between Volvo and Swedish safety developer Autoliv. In 2018, Autoliv founded its own Veoneer: a department that would exclusively focus on automated driving. That Veoneer, like Volvo, now owns 50 percent Zenuity. And that joint venture is now split into two parts to accelerate development.
One part becomes the property of Volvo and focuses on the development of the autonomous driving software. Veoneer’s part will focus on the further development of advanced driver assistance systems with the associated radars, cameras and lasers. The software built by Zenuity under Volvo’s wings should be available in the next generation of cars based on the SPA2 platform. Volvo’s goal is to ensure that the next generation of cars can drive independently on the highway. CEO Håkan Samuelsson: “By fully focusing the new company on this development, we can realize those ambitions.” The new XC90 may be a good candidate to get acquainted with the new software first.
The companies resulting from the split of Zenuity will be operational by the third quarter of this year.