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Besides city driving, Volvo said the 360c would create new
demand for inter-city taxi passengers traveling as far as 300 km
(186 miles), and even challenge some short-haul aviation
services.
"The business will change in the coming years and Volvo should
lead the change of our industry," Chief Executive Hakan
Samuelsson said in a statement.
Volvo expects autonomous cars to account for a third of its
sales by 2025, the company said in June, while fully electric
cars claim 50 percent.
The world's largest automakers are developing new types of
vehicle such as self-driving passenger shuttles as they look to
capture new markets in an autonomous future that may also see
direct car sales dwindle as fewer people own them.
Tech companies such as Uber and Alphabet's Waymo are pouring
billions of dollars into autonomous car development, while auto
manufacturers such as Daimler are testing prototypes.
Few details have yet been announced, however, a year before
Daimler and partner Bosch are due to deploy robo-taxis in
California's Silicon Valley.
So far, Volvo's self-driving ambitions have been closely linked
with Uber, which was operating a fleet of autonomous Volvo XC90s
until a recent fatal collision with a pedestrian brought the
program to a halt.
Volvo, whose first stand-alone autonomous car is due in 2021, is
exploring a listing this year.
Geely, its Chinese parent, has hired three investment banks for
an initial public offering that could value Volvo at $16-$30
billion, a person familiar with the matter has told Reuters.
Samuelsson has said the company remains focused on meeting the
challenges of electric and self-driving cars and has the funds
to do so with or without a stock market flotation.
(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Stockholm; editing by Georgina
Prodhan and Jason Neely)
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