Industrial PhD - Self-driving vehicles

Industrial PhD - Self-driving vehicles

At Research & Development you will be a key contributor to the next generation outstanding luxury cars from Volvo. Together with other engineers around the world, you and your team will create innovative human-centric car technology that makes life less complicated and more enjoyable for people. Are you interested in design and connected car technology? Do you share our passion for people, the environment and our urge to create a superior driving experience? Research and Development is the place for you to prosper.
The automotive industry is about to enter a period of dramatic change. Within a few years, the first self-driving vehicles will hit the market.

We at Active Safety believe that the research with the greatest impact will be done where universities and industrial partners collaborate. Volvo Car together with Chalmers University of Technology have an excellent record of accomplishment in this area and many active-safety functions pioneered by Volvo originated from joint research projects. At Volvo there is a fleet of test vehicles with advanced sensor setups and the ability to rapidly test new functionality; both in simulations and controlled real-world environments. Volvo Car's also has a long history of focusing on safety. This makes us uniquely capable of solving the challenges of self-driving vehicles where safety and trust are vital.

Self-driving vehicles are forecasted to be used all over the world within the near future and the research which makes this possible is going to have a profound and long-lasting effect on the future of transportation. We are now looking to hire an industrial PhD student to join us in our research for self-driving vehicles. At Volvo Car's we are guided by the principle that a fully-autonomous self-driving vehicle should only operate in environments where it is capable of reaching its destination safely and where it can achieve this without hindering and causing conflicts with other traffic. A crucial step to achieve this is to be able to accurately model and predict traffic behaviour.

Main responsibilities
The PhD project will research methods for automatically assessing how other road users act and interact with others. In particular, the project will focus on estimating which safety margins other vehicles take, how drivers plan their trajectories and how other road users respond to external events. The successful candidate will research which methods are most applicable for this task and look at different approaches such as model-based approaches and deep learning. A primary motivation for this research is to allow self-driving vehicles to safely navigate through intersections. With this aim, the successful candidate will work together with other PhD students and Volvo's in-house research teams to develop self-driving vehicles which can interact naturally in complex traffic environments.

Required qualifications

* Master of Science degree with focus on signal processing, dynamical systems, parameter estimation, control theory, mathematics or statistics.
* The candidate must demonstrate excellent skills in mathematics and statistical methods
* Fluent in English both spoken and written

Personal qualities

* Being able to, and fond of, working independently for significant time periods
* Easy to communicate and to take part in team work
* Very ambitious and a high analytical talent

About Volvo Car Group
The future belongs to those who are empowered by a great idea and have the ability to carry it out. At Volvo Car Group, our vision is clear: "To be the world's most progressive and desired luxury car brand" by simplifying people's lives. We have bold targets when it comes to innovation, sales and customer satisfaction and to make this happen, we need talented people onboard. People with passion, energy, business sense and the drive to innovate. People that want to create the next generation Volvo cars in a global, dynamic and respectful environment. We will support you to reach your full potential. Join us on this exciting journey into the future.

Contact
In this recruitment process we are collaborating with Randstad Sourceright. If you have any questions regarding the position you are welcome to contact the responsible recruitment consultant Jessica Mitrosbaras by e-mail jessica.mitrosbaras@randstadsourceright.se. Note that applications by e-mail will not be accepted.

Interviews will be held continuously. To apply, please register your profile and attach your application. To apply, please register your profile and attach your application documents including your grades via the link below documents via the link below as soon as possible but no later than Sep 24th, 2016.