- Volvo Cars is exploring the potential safety, convenience and societal benefits of the connected car
- A pilot fleet of 1,000 cars will run on Swedish and Norwegian roads during 2015
- Program reveals the vision of how Volvo Cars can lead in making the connected car a positive social force
- Sharing anonymized car data will save lives, time and taxpayers money
Volvo Cars will present the next step in the future of connected cars at the world's largest mobile and
technology exhibition, Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on March 2-5.
"Imagine a world where road status data collected by cars is shared with other road users and with local
authorities through a connected car cloud such as the Volvo Cloud: A world where the benefits of anonymized
data-sharing support convenience and life-saving services while helping to contribute to a better society. Volvo
Cars is working on realising such a scenario," said Klas Bendrik, Vice President and Group CIO at Volvo Cars
Group.
Volvo Cars is currently investigating a whole range of connected car services that could be provided thanks to
available in-car data and the Volvo Cloud. Smart cities could improve traffic flow management by optimising
traffic lights and speed limits and by offering re-routing suggestions based on real-time traffic jam alerts.
Realtime warnings of dangerous weather and emergency road conditions or of emergency braking by other drivers could be provided. In the future, smart cities could even use connected street-lights to illuminate dangerous road-sections in another colour when detected by a connected car to alert other road users to dangerous road conditions.
Road Status technology has been developed over many years at Volvo Cars and is currently being piloted in
Sweden and Norway with a fleet that will extend to 1,000 cars during 2015.
"If a Volvo car detects that it is slippery on a certain stretch of road, for example, it can make other connected
cars aware of this via the Volvo Cloud so they are forewarned. Such connected car services could deliver both
personal and societal benefits by reducing the potential for accidents and lowering the cost of road maintenance by making winter road maintenance more efficient," said Klas Bendrik, adding "Car makers have the potential to deliver real benefits to society by democratising anonymized car data. This is something that Volvo Cars feels very strongly about."
It is another step forward on an exciting journey made possible by the evolution of the connected car in a
connected society. In the future it will be possible to connect such innovative cloud-based technology with
traffic management systems in different countries in standardised forms and maximise the sharing of real-time
traffic information data - not only with other cars but eventually with wider society.
Notes to Editor
Volvo Car Group will present its slippery road detection technology exclusively at the Ericsson stand at this
year's Mobile World Congress.
Partnership with Ericsson
In late 2012 Volvo Cars and Ericsson established a partnership with the express intention to jointly advance the
technical development of industry-leading innovations for automotive connected services. The Connected
Vehicle Cloud, based on Ericsson's Multiservice Delivery Platform provides infotainment, apps and
communication services in new Volvo cars. Volvo Cars and Ericsson continue to work together to build the
ecosystem around the connected car.
About Volvo Cars pilot - test-fleet of 1000 Volvo cars detecting slippery road conditions
In Sweden and Norway, a fleet of 1000 cars currently detects slippery road conditions, transmitting this
information to other Volvo cars and to road maintenance authorities via the Volvo Cloud. This data can help
road administrators to better manage winter road maintenance and quickly address changing conditions.
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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 25,000 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 Sk+â-¦vde
(Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofstr+â-¦m (Sweden).
For further information please contact:
Oliver Peagam
Public Affairs Manager
Volvo Car Australia
T: 02 9020 1613
M: 0408 691 017
E: opeagam@volvocars.com