There was a flurry of interest when Volvo Cars and Gothenburg’s parking company presented the results of a completed project within 'Drive Me' on autonomous cars, which will benefit future mobility solutions in a sustainable city.
Maria Stenström, CEO of the Göteborgs Stads Parkeringsaktiebolag and Marcus Rothoff, Program Manager of Drive Me, Volvo Cars, welcomed everyone who had come to Lindholmen Science Park for an afternoon of talks on self-driving cars. On this day, focus was predominantly on self-parking cars, which were demonstrated in an adjacent multi-storey car park for dedicated and inquisitive participants.
“I am really enthusiastic. It feels incredibly exciting to participate in a project that, in such an innovative way, encourages new, sustainable travel,” says Maria Stenström.
“With self-parking cars, multi-storey car parks can become 10-15% more space-efficient than they are today. By getting out of the car outside the multi-storey car park, we will save both time and money," according to Marcus Rothoff.
Jonas Bjelfestam, state investigator for self-driving vehicles, was very positive towards the way in which cooperation stimulates innovation in Gothenburg.
“It’s great to see such a proactive parking company. It is really essential to have this type of cooperation demonstrated here between the business sector, academia and the public sector. You have started planning on how you can optimize the use of self-driving cars - imagine if all municipalities did the same as Gothenburg!”
Ann-Sofie Hermansson, Chairman of the municipal executive board of the City of Gothenburg, held a closing speech and mentioned that, with regard to the innovation partnership programmes launched by the Government, she is very hopeful that initiatives within one of the programs in particular, ‘The next generation's travel and transport', will be assigned to Gothenburg.
Read the press release from Göteborgs Stads Parkerings AB (Swe)
Read the article in Göteborgs Posten (Swe)
Read the article and listen to the interview on the radio station P4 (Swe)