Volvo has started testing 100 self-driving cars in Sweden as part of a project called "Drive Me."

The automaker's first self-driving Autopilot vehicles are being deployed on public roads as Volvo prepares to enter the next phase in its effort to introduce an autonomous vehicle within the decade.

"The technology, which will be called Autopilot, enables the driver to hand over the driving to the vehicle, which takes care of all driving functions," said Volvo's Erik Coelingh in a statement this week, according to the automaker.

Coelingh, a technical specialist at Volvo, who confirmed that the test cars can now handle speed adaption, merging traffic, and lane following all by themselves.

"The test cars are now able to handle lane following, speed adaption and merging traffic all by themselves," said Coelingh. "This is an important step towards our aim that the final 'Drive Me' cars will be able to drive the whole test route in highly autonomous mode.

Volvo said the self-driving vehicles have been equipped with a number of features like camera, laser, and radar technology.

The company came up with the Autopilot name based on the autopilot function found in an aircraft, according to a Volvo statement.

Volvo's news comes the same week Google announced that it had started test-driving vehicles on streets in California.

"A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area," said Chris Urmson, the director of Google's self-driving car project, in the blog post.

Other companies working on self-driving vehicles include: Nissan Motor Co, Volkswagen AG's Audi and Toyota Motor Corp.

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