Volvo Teams up with Google to Integrate Android into next generation connected cars

Volvo Cars has announced that it is teaming up with Google to work on integrating Android into the next generation of its award-winning in-car infotainment and connectivity solution. The solution which is based on Android, offers motorists access to a wide array of apps and services and will be available on new Volvo models within two years.

The partnership is set to transform how Volvo’s customers will interact with their cars as they will now gain access to a wide array of popular Android apps, which have been developed by Google, Volvo or third party app developers and are meant to offer connected and predictive services in and around the car.

Commenting on the partnership, Henrik Green, Senior Vice President Research & Development at Volvo Car Group said that Volvo is taking an important strategic step with the Google partnership as it would go a long way towards enhancing the user experience by increasing the scope for personalization. From a developer’s perspective, integrating Android would offer a greater degree of flexibility.

The partnership between the two companies reflects the increasing overlapping between the auto and technology sectors as it becomes more important for cars to be connected to each other, to the motorists and to infrastructure. Volvo believes that smart partnerships are essential to stay relevant in the car industry of the future. Using Android as the base operating system will help the company to offer greater speed and flexibility when it comes to connected technology and to offer customers a more personalized connected in-car experience.

Patrick Brady, Vice President of Android Engineering at Google said that the partnership would give Google the opportunity to deliver a more seamless experience to Volvo drivers through a full-featured infotainment platform and a rich ecosystem of Android applications and Google services. He added that they would retain the iconic Volvo interface while using the Android platform to offer hundreds of popular apps and the best integrated experience.

Another project in which Volvo is collaborating with Google is one as part of which recent Volvo models will be updated by adding Google Local Search, a location based service application. This will be released through an update to customers with Sensus Navigation.