Volvo and others can say whatever they like, until they bring something to market I will assume they are freaking out as how they will slowly be made irrelevant.
[1] : https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressrele... [2] : http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-fir...
By the way I don't think Volvo is freaking out so much as going for it's vision 2020 thing:
"in 2008 we set out our vision that by 2020 nobody should be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo car."
I don't know why, either, since this would presumably be very easily debunked.
For a representative example, see how bad Mercedes’ latest and greatest E-Class w/ Drive Pilot is: http://www.autofil.no/936897/hands-off
It’s damning. And that is the one they advertised as being “self-driving”. That’s the best Mercedes has.
This review compares more of them: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/semi-autonomous-cars-co...
The best of non-Teslas have at least twice as many autonomous mode disengagements (i.e. they suck at the lane keeping job). They specifically call out Model S for being the only one that can keep in a lane without wobbling like a drunk driver. None of the “old” car manufactures can even get that right, let alone anything more.
So yes, on paper all these components exist for 3+ years and are nothing new. Exactly like smartphones existed before the iPhone did — remember those?