Hey Google, what did we announce at CES?

CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas is the hotspot for anyone interested in state-of-the-art tech advances. This year, due to the pandemic, our presence was all digital.

We kick-started the new year with exciting tech news that will become reality through our smart collaborations with global tech leaders Google, Luminar and Qualcomm. With the world’s most influential tech event as our setting, we unveiled new tech that will improve our future cars – and the experience and everyday life of the people driving them.

We also displayed a few of the cornerstones of our ongoing transformation: the C40, our first car to only be launched as electric, as well as Concept Recharge, our design and technology manifesto of what our next generation Volvos will stand for.

Now, we’ve kept you waiting long enough – here’s what we announced:

Together with Qualcomm, we announced that our next-generation Google Android-based infotainment system will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon technology. Thanks to our joint research and development competence, Volvo Cars can deliver an industry-leading video, audio and connectivity performance in its next generation of fully electric cars.

The system will be much faster and more responsive than before, with the overall performance twice as fast and graphics generation up to ten times faster. The first car to be equipped with the new Qualcomm tech will be our fully electric flagship SUV, which we’ll reveal later this year. Our strategic affiliate Polestar will also equip its 3 SUV with the new Qualcomm tech.

We told the world about Ride Pilot – our first truly unsupervised autonomous driving feature – and that our ambition is to first launch it in California before continuing in other markets around the globe.

When available, Ride Pilot will allow you to save time and do a bunch of ‘secondary activities’ as we call it: read, write, work, socialise. Ride Pilot implies what you can expect: comfort and peace of mind while Volvo takes responsibility for the driving.

Once verified as safe for use on highways, Ride Pilot is planned to be available as an add-on subscription on our fully electric SUV. The feature includes software developed by Zenseact together with developers from Luminar and Volvo, and a sensor set-up crowned by the cutting-edge Iris LiDAR from Luminar.

And, of course, there was the event’s Google day, when we revealed new tech that will become reality in the coming months. First, YouTube is coming to your Volvo. Drivers and passengers of Volvo cars with Google built-in will be able to enjoy their favourite YouTube videos, livestreams, news or shows while the car is fully stationary. That’s just the beginning of enabling video streaming in cars.

We also announced that we’ll become the first car maker in the world to directly integrate our cars with Google Assistant-enabled devices. As long as your infotainment system is powered by Android Automotive OS, connected to the Volvo Cars app and a Google Assistant-enabled device, and Google Assistant is available in your region, you’ll be able to remotely control a variety of functionalities, such as warming up your car on a cold winter day or locking it, in case you forget to do so. And the list of available commands will become longer and longer.

To sum up, we’re saying a virtual goodbye to Las Vegas and CES with our mission completed. We’ve underlined the importance of smart tech collaborations and how much we believe in them as the right way for us going forward. Together with our partners, we’ve shown that we’re at the forefront of delivering user-centered tech designed to offer our customers the best possible experiences. Finally, by displaying the Concept Recharge, we added yet another reason to look forward to our next generation of cars – and to Volvo's future.