Premium carmaker Volvo Car Group — in which Chinese billionaire Li Shufu has a controlling stake —has agreed to supply Uber with tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles from 2019 to 2021, according to an announcement made on Tuesday.

The base vehicles are developed on Volvo's fully modular, in-house developed Scalable Product Architecture. The class-leading car architecture is currently used on Volvo's top-of-the-line 90 series cars and on the new XC60 midsize SUV.

The non-exclusive agreement enhances the strategic partnership Volvo Cars and United States ride-sharing company Uber announced in August 2016. It also marks a new chapter in the convergence of carmakers and Silicon Valley-based technology companies.

"The automotive industry is being disrupted by technology and Volvo Cars chooses to be an active part of that disruption," said Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Car Group.

He said: "Our aim is to be the supplier of choice for autonomous driving ride-sharing service providers globally. Today's agreement with Uber is a primary example of that strategic direction."

Volvo's engineers have worked closely with their US counterparts to develop the XC90 premium SUVs set to join Uber's fleet. The base vehicles incorporate all the necessary safety, redundancy and core autonomous driving technologies that are required for Uber to add its own self-driving technology.

"We're thrilled to expand our partnership with Volvo," said Jeff Miller, head of auto alliances at Uber. "This new agreement puts us on a path towards mass-produced self-driving vehicles at scale."

At the same time as providing Uber with autonomous cars, Volvo will use the same base model in the development of its own independent autonomous strategy, which is planned to culminate in the release of its first fully autonomous car in 2021.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn