Originally published on March 12, 2014

Volvo's newest autonomous vehicle technology uses road magnets to position cars on the road and was showcased at the company's facility in Hällered, Sweden.

This novel positioning method attempts to circumvent poor weather conditions and physical obstructions that compromise the performance of existing navigation technologies, such as GPS and cameras. Ferrous magnets embedded into the road generates magnetic fields that are picked up by sensors equipped in the self-driving vehicle.

"Accurate, reliable positioning is a necessary prerequisite for a self-driving car," Jonas Ekmark, Preventive Safety Leader at Volvo Car Group said in a Gizmodo report. "The magnets create an invisible 'railway' that literally paves the way for a positioning inaccuracy of less than one decimeter (10 cm/4 in)."

Volvo says that incorporating this self-driving technology on the road can prevent run-off road accidents and allow for more efficient use of road space, since the roads can be made narrower.

"The test results are very interesting, especially when adding the potential for improved safety as well the advantages for the development of self-driving vehicles," Claes Tingvall, Traffic Safety Director at the Swedish Transport Administration said in a Gizmodo report. "A large-scale implementation of road magnets could very well be part of Sweden's aim to pioneer technology that contributes to sustainable mobility."