Volvo's plan for self-driving cars focuses on ... the driver?

Starting this year, Volvo will take its autonomous driving program on the road -- but the Swedish automaker's approach to developing its tech is a bit more intimate than most of its competitors. Rather than rolling a fleet of self-driving cars out onto the streets of a city with contracted employees running the tests like Chevy or Ford, Volvo is leading off by handing the keys of an autonomous XC90 over to the Hains, a family in Gothenburg. This isn't necessarily news -- Volvo announced its plans for the pilot program as far back as last year -- but the car company shared a few new details about the program and its greater autonomous driving strategy at the 2017 NAIAS Detroit auto show. SEE ALSO: Alphabet's Waymo unveils its autonomous Chrysler minivan The Hain family was selected because they drive a certain road in the region for their daily commute, which Volvo targeted in its use-case research. Their XC90 will be equipped with a special logging system in addition to the necessary sensors and cameras for self-driving tech, which will record video of the interior of the car to observe how the family interacts with it.