Volvo EX60 hits accelerator on in-vehicle connectivity and AI

The all-electric Volvo EX60 is being described as “a car you can have a natural conversation with”, and just days before its global reveal, the manufacturer has announced that the car is its first to be designed to launch with the Google Gemini AI assistant and continuous and “ultra-responsive” connectivity delivered by the Snapdragon Auto Connectivity Platform from Qualcomm Technologies.

The EX60 model is seen as the most intelligent Volvo and can go up to 810km on a single charge in an all-wheel drive configuration, beating even its most recently revealed competitors and farther than any electric Volvo car before it. The EX60 can also gain up to 340km of range in just 10 minutes from a 400kW fast charger.

It contains the latest iteration of HuginCore, the manufacturer’s core system that empowers the car to think, process and act. The system encompasses the in-house-developed electrical architecture, core computer, zone controllers and software inside the EX60, making it a “true software-defined car”.

Named after the bird in Norse mythology, HuginCore is designed to enable continuous improvement of Volvo cars through over-the-air updates and reinforce the company’s long-established reputation as a safety leader in the automotive market. Indeed, HuginCore is attributed with helping to take the EX60 to new levels of safety, as it constantly reads and assesses the world around the car through an array of sensors. The result, said Volvo, is a car with a clear and precise understanding of its surroundings.

The technology has been built to allow drivers to anticipate danger sooner, avoid potential risks, and react calmly and confidently when the unexpected happens. It is designed to make every journey safer, more reassuring and less stressful, enabling highly advanced driver assistance features.​ The car also draws on experiences from other Volvo cars globally, including accidents and near misses, to keep improving over time. 

Volvo sees HuginCore as embodying its approach to human-centric technology, combining in-house development and collaboration with tech leaders.

“The new EX60 is full of human-centric technology designed to enhance your life behind the wheel,” commented Volvo chief engineering and technology officer Anders Bell. “HuginCore, our state-of-the-art system of hardware and software, combines our in-house-developed technology with the best services and technologies from tech leaders such as Google, Nvidia and Qualcomm Technologies. It creates discreet yet cutting-edge tech that works quietly in the background to support you.”

At the centre of the EX60 lies the Nvidia Drive platform, featuring accelerated computing powered by the Nvidia Drive AGX Orin system on a chip (SoC), which runs on the safety-certified DriveOS operating system. The AI-powered features on the EX60 require advanced computing power, which is available from the next-generation Snapdragon Cockpit SoC, providing the EX60 with the highest level of processing power found inside a Volvo to date. The EX60 is capable of over 250 trillion operations per second, and connectivity options include four years of complimentary, unlimited data.

Volvo Cars and Google have been working together for nearly a decade, and the Gemini capability is designed to offer hands-free control for everything that matters on the road. It is highly personalised, deeply integrated with the car, and allows drivers to manage complex tasks through natural and multi-turn conversation without having to remember specific commands. Drivers can then stay focused on the drive, reducing the need to look at the central display.