Every kid loves playing with remote-controlled cars. Every kid loves playing with toy dump trucks. But what if you combine the two and take out the "toy" part? That's what Volvo Trucks created for little Sophie, a precocious young lady who successfully "drove" the Volvo FMX dump truck through an obstacle course built in a Serbian gravel pit — sort of.
A standard RC-car controller allowed Sophie to control steering, acceleration, braking, and the gearshift. (There are some weird cuts in the video that suggest there might have been some extra trickery behind the scenes, but it does roll down an embankment at one point. We've reached out to Volvo for comment.) It's an absurd publicity stunt, but that doesn't make it any less awesome. Volvo Trucks — which is an independent company from Volvo Cars — is promoting its FMX truck, which includes something called Automatic Traction Control. It's a feature that engages the front axle when needed to provide extra traction in muddy situations.
That's great and everything, but Volvo made a RC dump truck! And let a little kid drive it! What's better than that?