It hasn't exactly been a good 24 hours for Volvo and Uber. That's because one of their joint project, self-driving XC90 vehicles crashed into a bicyclist on Sunday and killed them.
And while Agent 009 covered the story earlier, I was just thinking about this incident as it is a significant one.
That's because this is the first time an innocent bystander has been killed by an autonomous vehicle. Because this is all-new territory, there's many different ways this case can go. Is the state liable? What about Volvo? Uber? What about the driver who was in the autonomous XC90?
Although there's been crashes with autonomous vehicles before, this is a whole different ballgame.
I think there's a big elephant in the room, however. And that is this. Volvo has built tremendous brand equity as producing some of the automotive world's safest vehicles on the road. Always honing in on all-new technology that prioritizes safety, Volvo is a household name for safety-focused consumers. Being that it was a Volvo vehicle involved, I've got to wonder:
Has Volvo done irreparable damage to its brand by partnering with Uber and having one of its XC90s involved in the crash? Could this be one of the biggest public relations blunders of the decade?
What say you, Spies?
Keep in mind that Volvo and Uber originally partnered up in a $300 million dollar deal and Uber committed to ordering upwards of 24,000 more vehicles for autonomous purposes.
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