Volvo has moved up a gear in the race to perfect driverless cars, signing a deal with Uber to supply “tens of thousands” of autonomous vehicles to the ride-hailing business.

Last year the Swedish car company and Silicon Valley technology business jointly agreed to invest $300m to develop “base vehicles” capable of being fitted with self-driving systems that will be made by Volvo and bought by Uber.

That partnership has now come to fruition with Uber saying it will make huge orders for the new vehicles based on Volvo’s XC90 SUVs between 2019 and 2021.