Stenqvist dives into how Volvo is thinking about new technology, and we chat a bit about how it's approaching completely autonomous vehicles. Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!

Volvo has created a new business unit for its growing range of autonomous transport solutions. The new business area, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, will accelerate the development, commercialization and sales of autonomous transport solutions. Volvo says this will enable the company to meet "a growing demand" and to offer "the best possible solutions" to customers in such segments as mining, ports and transport between logistics centers, as a complement to today's products and services. With global developments that are characterized by higher demand for transportation, increasingly congested roads and major environmental challenges, the industry needs to provide transport solutions that are safer, have a lower environmental impact and are more efficient. Autonomous transport solutions, based on self-driving and connectivity technologies are well-suited for applications where there is a need to move large volumes of goods and material on pre-defined routes, in repetitive flows.

The Volvo Group has signed an agreement with NVIDIA to jointly develop the decision making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines. Utilising NVIDIA's end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing, the resulting system is designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways. The solution will be built on NVIDIA's full software stack for sensor processing, perception, map localisation and path planning, enabling a wide range of possible autonomous driving applications, such as freight transport, refuse and recycling collection, public transport, construction, mining, forestry and more. "Automation creates real-life benefits for both our customers and the society in terms of safety, energy efficiency and as a consequence productivity. We continue to gradually introduce automated applications in the entire spectrum of automation, from driver support systems to fully autonomous vehicles and machines. This partnership with NVIDIA is an important next step on that journey," says Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO of the Volvo Group.

Volvo Group and NVIDIA are delivering autonomy to the world's transportation industries, using AI to revolutionize how people and products move all over the world. At its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo Group announced Tuesday that it's using the NVIDIA DRIVE end-to-end autonomous driving platform to train, test and deploy self-driving AI vehicles, targeting public transport, freight transport, refuse and recycling collection, construction, mining, forestry and more. By injecting AI into these industries, Volvo Group and NVIDIA can create amazing new vehicles and deliver more productive services. The two companies are co-locating engineering teams in Gothenburg and Silicon Valley. Together, they will build on the DRIVE AGX Pegasus platform for in-vehicle AI computing and utilize the full DRIVE AV software stack for 360-degree sensor processing, perception, map localization and path planning.

In a disused military aircraft hangar buried deep in a granite hillside, Johan Tofeldt flicks a switch on the future of mining. "Look, no hands!" he beams, as the truck lurches backwards and executes a precise reverse. "It's a little heavy on the clutch, but then it's not designed for driver comfort." The cheerful Swede is sitting in a standard Volvo FMX heavy duty truck, a haulage industry workhorse. But where once there was a narrow bed behind the seat there is now a laptop and a tangle of wires.