Preparing for its future of autonomous vehicles, Volvo is teaming-up with Ericsson to bring high-bandwidth, interruption-free media streaming to its cars. The new technology was previewed in the brand’s recently-revealed Concept 26 cockpit which was shown at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Anders Tylman, general manager of Volvo Monitoring and Concept Centre, said, “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.”
Volvo and Ericsson believe that with the rise of autonomous vehicles, highly-populated areas will soon demand consistent and high-bandwidth coverage. Volvo plans to utilise Ericsson’s network and cloud expertise to answer this by delivering the service, interruption-free, in its future cars.
Video content, sourced from the internet, will then be delivered uninterruptedly to vehicles, in which passengers enjoying the autonomous journey may stream and watch seamlessly. Volvo also plans for its vehicle systems to be able to calculate routes and network conditions ahead, and tailoring the duration of the content according to each trip.
“Our research shows that almost 70% 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.
Tylman continued to highlight the capabilities of its future tech being able to optimise video content based on how long a journey would be. Altering a route if it must, Tylman says that, “autonomous driving is no longer just a question of 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,” he concluded.
VIDEO: Volvo Concept 26
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