Volvo taps top digital exec to lead new autonomous software unit

Volvo Cars has named Odgard Andersson CEO of its newly formed autonomous drive software development company, Zenseact, the automaker said Wednesday.

It is Andersson's second big promotion in the last 18 months. The previous one came in May 2019 when she succeeded Atif Rafiq as Volvo's chief digital officer.

Andersson, 48, joined Volvo in 2016 from Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson executive, where she spent 20 years and where her focus was on transforming the telecom industry from hardware to software-oriented development.

Starting next month she takes responsibility for a company formed from the pieces of Volvo and supplier Veoneer's former automotive software joint venture, Zenuity.

Under the terms of the breakup, Zenuity has become a holding company for the intellectual property that the partners co-developed. Zenseact and Veoneer have equal rights to use that technology.

As part of the agreement, Zenseact absorbed 600 of Zenuity's 800 people. They are based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Shanghai, China, Volvo said.

Although Zenseact is wholly owned by Volvo, the company is free to work with other automakers, which was also the case with Zenuity.

Veoneer's part of Zenuity, which was integrated into the Swedish technology supplier, will focus on development and commercialization of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) software. The supplier received IP licenses and added about 200 software engineers, located in Germany, the U.S. and Sweden, Veoneer said.

Volvo and Veoneer first announced their plans to split up Zenuity in April.

Financial analysts Morgan Stanley said that expectations for the launch of fully autonomous driving were pushed back significantly last year. So it's no surprise that Veoneer will now focus just on ADAS solutions that help the driver without taking full control of the car.

While some automakers are slowing their investments in autonomous driving, Andersson said Volvo sees the technology as being a key to further reducing accidents, which is a core value at the company.

"We believe we can really fundamentally take the next step in creating a safer traffic situation," Andersson told Automotive News Europe in a video chat. "We don't think that's become less interesting because of a pandemic going on. We aim to create more and more advanced features that support drivers to provide more situations where they don't need to supervise the car, so it can drive itself."

Volvo wants autonomous vehicles to make up one-third of its deliveries by 2025. A key step toward achieving that goal will be equipping new models such as the third-generation XC90 flagship crossover with the capability to drive themselves on the highway. The software tasked with making Volvo's Highway Pilot capable of unsupervised driving in SPA2-based cars will come from Zenseact.

"The aim is to be unsupervised in highway scenarios wherever that is possible," Andersson said. "That should grow from a geographic perspective over time. But, we also want to offer a really great advanced driver support system in places where the car is not allowed to drive autonomously."

Andersson's chief digital officer role will be taken over on an interim basis by Volvo Chief Technology Officer Henrik Green.

Another change Volvo announced on Wednesday was that CEO Hakan Samuelsson, who has been a strong proponent of the automaker's efforts to offer unsupervised driving, will serve as Zenseact's chairman.

"Volvo Cars believes autonomous drive will revolutionize road safety" Samuelsson said in a release, "and we are committed to introduce the technology in our next-generation cars."