Volvo invented the seatbelt. Can it make self-driving vehicles safer? 

That’s the question facing Nils Jaeger, president of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, who is leading the business at a time when it seems self-driving tech has finally arrived—and is increasingly under scrutiny. 

“Volvo was the company which invented the three-point safety belt, and we also think that with autonomous technology, we can take the next step, which is as important as the three-point safety belt once was,” Jaeger told me in an onstage interview at the Toronto Global Forum last week. 

“Why do we think so? When we look at trucking … we continue to see fatalities, accidents, near-misses every day.” 

The Volvo Group’s AV tech unit—a relatively new group established in 2020—seems both literally and figuratively on the other side of the map from Silicon Valley, with its robotaxi fever. Its breakthroughs have come in Norwegian fjord country, not city streets. 

While Volvo is working on self-driving passenger cars, Jaeger’s division is focused on applications like long-haul trucking, ports and mining—for which countries like Canada need to repair broken supply chains and develop critical-minerals mines. It addresses issues like the “elephant to ant” problem, where EV mining trucks can’t handle as much cargo because of their giant batteries, so they must be replaced with smaller vehicles making more frequent, efficient trips—all without fatiguing drivers or creating the need for even more labour in remote areas.

While there are industries that tend to have labour shortages, Jaeger said AI is “clearly” not replacing those jobs.  

“If you want to start today a career as a truck driver, you can do that, and we believe you will be able to go into retirement and you will not be replaced, because there is quite a shortage,” he said. 

But, he said, AI can take humans out of the most dangerous parts of the supply chain, like hazardous areas of mines or weeks-long hauling trips that push drivers to their limits.

“For Volvo Group, looking at autonomous technology, it is, of course, something which we understood will play a major role going forward,” he said.

“We need to be focused … where we have expertise. Where are we strong, what’s our heritage? … Taking the human being out of this dangerous environment is something we believe is very important.” 

Volvo Group has a partnership with Aurora, the U.S.-based self-driving truck company run by Canadian entrepreneur Chris Urmson, and has also invested in Waabi, the Toronto-based self-driving truck startup which Jaeger called a “shining star.” 

Technology like Volvo’s, where fully driverless trucks haul limestone through Scandinavian tunnels, has understandably been overshadowed by Tesla supercomputers and the robotaxis proliferating on American streets. These vehicles have also seen some pushback amid safety concerns and anxiety over their potential to eliminate jobs.

Jaeger said he’s a fan of robotaxis, but concedes that the AV industry has “raised very high expectations” and may have underestimated the complexity of the technology. 

“If you look at newspapers from 2017, then it would have suggested that by 2020 we would see that as a broad phenomenon already,” he said. “When I arrived at the airport yesterday, there was no robotaxi waiting for me.” 

But now, AVs are not only here, they are generating revenue for Volvo Group—just starting in the quarry or loading bay instead of the taxi queue. 

“Highway trucking is a much bigger case and a much better case. And much more important for our economies.” 

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