XC60

Make
Volvo
Segment
SUV

Swedish car manufacturing giant Volvo has traditionally been ahead of the curve when it comes to the latest safety technology, but it has been spending serious money in recent years to develop its EV tech and other in-car technologies. Last year, we covered Volvo's ambitions to turn the entire windshield of a car into a head-up display, and the company's first foray into over-the-air updates. After last year's infotainment system update to cars such as the Volvo XC60, S90, and V90, the brand is looking to further improve its infotainment experience and has now teamed up with Qualcomm to further improve the car maker's Google Android Automotive-based infotainment system.

Volvo will be keen to max out the performance of Qualcomm's Snapdragon cockpit platforms that are designed for centralized high-performance computing. In Volvo's case, this tech will be used to run high-demand features such as graphic displays, audio, and artificial intelligence systems. Volvo and Qualcomm believe that the next generation of Volvo infotainment systems will be "more than twice as fast, while its graphics generation will be up to ten times faster."

"Volvo Cars is a company that believes in collaborating with technology leaders like Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Google to deliver the best experience to our customers," said Volvo Cars Chief Product Officer Henrik Green. "With Qualcomm technology in our forthcoming fully electric SUV, our Google Android-based infotainment system will reach the next level."

The integration of the next-generation Snapdragon tech will also allow Volvo to run faster OTA updates and will futureproof its cars in general.

"Our goal is to support Volvo Cars by integrating cutting-edge, scalable, and upgradable technology that provides premium experiences today and into the future for their customers," announced Qualcomm Europe's senior vice president, Enrico Salvatori. "We are proud of the strong organizational concentration in automotive [industry] that we have in Europe, which spans across engineering, services, product marketing, and go-to-market."

At least Volvo is making some things faster - it announced in 2020 that all new cars would be limited to just 112 mph.