Google, Volvo Cars deepen partnership

GOTHENBURG: Volvo Cars and Alphabet's Google said on Wednesday the Swedish carmaker was now the lead development partner for Android automotive software, which should give its buyers access to new versions long before they are available via car industry rivals.

"We're going to be able to be fast in bringing new capabilities, new features and new experiences to our customers," Alwin Bakkenes, Volvo's head of global software engineering, told Reuters.

"This really gives us an edge in building fantastic customer experiences."

The two companies have been working together for a decade, but the deeper partnership means Google engineers will drive Volvo cars with the latest software to "experience how their product behaves in a real context much earlier and much faster", Bakkenes said.

He said on average the auto industry was about two Android releases behind mobile phones, which "means things you can do on your mobile phone, in many cases you cannot do in the car".

Volvo vehicles currently operate using Android 13, but at Google's I/O annual developer conference underway in Mountain View, California, the two companies are demonstrating Volvo's flagship EX90 electric SUV running on Android 15 - the latest version of Google's mobile operating system - which will roll out in production models later this year.

"Others might have to wait two years to get" that latest version of Android, Bakkenes said.

At the I/O conference the two companies also demonstrated Google's Gemini artificial intelligence model running in the EX90, which Volvo is going to roll out to cars with Google built-in.

Bakkenes said rather than drivers having to search through their phones for their destination, they can ask Gemini to search their emails or messages for it.

Or drivers can, for instance, ask Gemini to find recipes and then put a shopping list on their phone to create "a human-centric experience", Bakkenes said.