“Freedom,” said French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul
Sartre, “is what you do with what’s been done to you.” Who knows
what he would have said about the joys of motoring without
freedom, if he had staved off mortality long enough to come
across the autonomous driving system developed by Volvo, and
slyly named after him. SARTRE, which stands for “Safe Road
Trains for the Environment,” features a lead car that sets the
pace and tempo of its followers. Volvo conducted a convoy of its
own cars using the system, including an S60, V60 wagon, XC60 and
a few of its big rigs. The lead car drove at around 50 miles per
hour for 125 miles. A wireless network installed on all the cars
allowed them to follow safely behind at around 15 to 50 feet.
“We’ve focused really hard on changing as little as possible in
existing systems,” said Linda Wahlström, Volvo’s project
manager. “Everything should function without any infrastructure
changes to the roads or expensive additional components in the
cars. Apart from the softwa