Volvo and Microsoft teams up to develop next generation cars

Kuala Lumpur: Volvo Cars, the Swedish premium car maker, will partner with Microsoft to jointly develop next-generation automotive technologies, Volvo announced on Friday.

Areas of future collaboration between the two companies could include autonomous driving technologies and the utilisation of data generated from connected cars to create new services.

The two companies today revealed how Microsoft HoloLens, the world's first fully untethered holographic computer, might be used in future to redefine how customers first encounter and explore a car, as well as how cars might be bought and sold in future.

"HoloLens offers the freedom to create a bespoke experience which customers can steer themselves. Imagine using mixed reality to choose the type of car you want - to explore the colours, rims, or get a better understanding of the features, services and options available," said Bjorn Annwall, Senior Vice President, Marketing Sales and Service at Volvo Cars.

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Klas Bendrik, senior vice president and chief information officer at Volvo, said: “Technology will allow us to achieve not only a more sustainable and crash-free future but also new benefits for our customers and society. Together with Microsoft we aim to pioneer in this field.”

"We are thrilled to be working with Volvo Cars to reimagine what is possible in car design, discovery and purchasing. We are excited to be at this intersection of technology and human-centric design with Volvo," Scott Erickson, Senior Director, Microsoft HoloLens at Microsoft Corp.

Volvo said that another area of focus will be autonomous driving. It has announced a programme called Drive-Me in which 100 self-driving and connected cars will be given to real customers on real roads around the Swedish city of Gothenburg by 2017, the world's largest autonomous driving experiment.

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