One Million Installations and Counting: The Rollout of Over-the-Air Updates to Volvo Cars Globally Continues

Volvo Cars’ latest update includes the ability to issue voice commands through Google Assistant-enabled devices allowing drivers to warm up their vehicle and, amongst other skills in the US market, launching a more comprehensive introduction of our Care Key technology, bringing integrated connectivity in additional markets and various bug fixes and stability improvements. Over-the-air updates are a vital technology that helps the company deliver on our ambition to make our cars continuously better.

They also cement our position as an industry leader in updating car software remotely. Updates over the air also mean you don’t have to visit a workshop anymore to get the latest software, which we think is rather convenient.

Our eleventh significant Over-the-Air Update (OTA) is expected to reach 350,000 customer cars around the globe, the most significant amount we have ever covered in one deployment. That takes the total number of over-the-air updates we delivered to over one million.

The total number of markets covered by the update has increased to 68, constituting more than half of all needs globally. Over 95 per cent of Volvo cars are sold. Since our last Over-the-Air Update, no less than 22 new markets have been added to the scope.

“Thanks to over-the-air updates and our rapidly growing in-house software development, we can create and deploy new features as well as enhance the customer experience much quicker than before,” says Alwin Bakkenes, our head of software engineering. 

“Hey, Google, What’s Included in This Update?”

So what do our customers get in this latest update? In the US market, we’re rolling out Google Assistant-controlled actions that allow seamless connectivity between your Google devices and your car. The functionality delivered in this OTA update includes activities like checking your battery or fuel levels, starting the climate control or checking on the charging status of your car and even starting or ending your charging session, all through a ‘Hey Google’ command on your device. And just in time for the cold weather season, you can command, ‘Hey Google, warm up my car’ without taking off your winter gloves.

“The launch of Google Assistant-controlled actions demonstrates our commitment to providing our customers with a better car every day, adding more convenience and peace of mind,” says Alwin Bakkenes. 

While this functionality is available only in the US, it is planned to expand to other markets shortly. The list of available commands will continue to grow in the future, as well.

Also included in this update is the expansion of our Care Key technology into all OTA-compatible cars. Initially introduced in 2021, the Care Key allows you to quickly limit the maximum speed on your car even further than the built-in limit.

Perfect when, for example, you want to lend your Volvo car to other family members or less experienced drivers. Thanks to the Care Key, they can further hone their fledgling driving skills, while you can rest assured that they drive at a safer speed.

We’re introducing integrated connectivity in several European markets, including Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Iceland. This provides customers with seamless connectivity, as their data plan now gets embedded into their car’s SIM card.

Another new feature is an excellent example of how we use customer feedback to improve our cars. Some customers asked us whether we could make it easier to remove a paired device from the infotainment system. With this latest software update, we’ve added a button to the menu for pairing devices.

The software update also includes a variety of other upgrades and stability improvements, including upgrades to the Apple CarPlay integration and a fix for an unlocking issue that appeared during the previous software update.

Finally, first-time customers will also be able to see details for this OTA update (software version 2.5) in the Volvo Cars app. The software update details in the mobile app will be rolled out in a staggered manner, so check what applies to your specific market.

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