Volvo and Ericsson to develop video streaming for driverless cars

Volvo's recently unveiled Concept 26 is its vision for the autonomous car of the future. Its "Relax Mode" would allow occupants to watch video content while the car takes care of driving. Working with Ericsson, Volvo is now developing the technology to stream that content to a car on the move. "Imagine a highway full of autonomous cars with their occupants sitting back watching their favourite TV shows in high definition," says general manager of the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Centre at Volvo Car Group, Anders Tylman. "This new way of commuting will demand new technology and a much broader bandwidth to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience." Based on the vehicle's planned or predicted route, the car maker says it will be able to offer content that matches the expected route length. In addition, it will be able to look at the network conditions on the route ahead and buffer the chosen content accordingly, providing bandwidth as required. In this way, Volvo says it will be possible to maximise the quality of content and ensure viewing is uninterrupted.

Volvo Cars is looking ahead to when its drivers can sit back and enjoy free time in their car on the daily commute.

At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Volvo revealed that it is developing intelligent, high bandwidth, streaming capabilities with its technology partner, Ericsson, that will ensure drivers and passengers get the most out of their time travelling in an autonomous Volvo.

“We recently unveiled our design vision for fully autonomous cars with Concept 26. Now we are actively working on future solutions to deliver the best user experience in fully autonomous mode. Imagine a highway full of autonomous cars with their occupants sitting back watching their favourite TV shows in high definition. This new way of commuting will demand new technology, and a much broader bandwidth to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience,” said Anders Tylman General Manager Volvo Monitoring & Concept Center at Volvo Car Group.

Interruption-free media streaming

Autonomous drive will bring a paradigm shift to mobile net demands. Volvo and Ericsson believe that this shift will see an increased need for consistent and high-bandwidth coverage outside densely populated areas such as city centres and suburbs.

Utilising Ericsson’s network and cloud expertise, Volvo Cars’ aim is to deliver a high quality, interruption-free experience in its cars whilst on the move. By predicting your route and looking ahead at network conditions, content can be tailored to the duration of each trip and intelligently buffered to deliver a high quality and uninterrupted viewing experience.

“Our research shows that almost 70 per cent of all mobile data traffic will be from video in the coming years. This requires an innovative connectivity, cloud and analytics solution that is not only capable of serving multiple moving vehicles across a highway, but also has the capacity to provide the high quality, uninterrupted video service today’s consumer is accustomed to, said Claes Herlitz, ‎Head of Automotive Services at Ericsson.

By learning the most common routes and times of travel and understanding media preferences, future Volvo cars will be able to provide one-click navigation and a customised preference based list of potential media - allowing customers to choose routes and select content tailored to the amount of autonomous time that is available during their commute.

Personalized and optimized content

“If you want to watch the latest episode of your favourite series, the car will know how long the journey needs to take and can optimize the route and driving control accordingly. With autonomous drive it is no longer just a question of just getting from A to B quickly – it’s about the experience you wish to have in the car – how you wish to spend the time you are saving. With our future autonomous drive technology we will provide people with the freedom to choose the way they would like to commute and the content they would like to experience,” concluded Anders Tylman.

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Volvo Car Group in 2014

For the 2014 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 2,252 MSEK (1,919 MSEK in 2013). Revenue over the period amounted to 129,959 MSEK (122,245 MSEK). For the full year 2014, global sales reached a record 465,866 cars, an increase of 8.9 per cent versus 2013. The record sales and operating profit cleared the way for Volvo Car Group to continue investing in its global transformation plan.

About Volvo Car Group

Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 465,866 in 2014 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.

As of December 2014, Volvo Cars had over 26,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium) and Chengdu (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).