Volvo is revealing its EX60 SUV quite soon, which will be a critical model for the company. The current XC60 is the brand's best-seller in the US, and the EX60 is a sort of electric successor. The company already announced some impressive range and charging specifications, and it has another announcement about the vehicle's capabilities ahead of the unveiling. So, what does Volvo think its customers are excited to hear about? Could it be the power numbers? Could it be a look at the interior? Maybe it will be about some special materials used?
Nope. The second big announcement about the EX60 is that, like so many other things, it's getting artificial intelligence (AI).
All The Big Tech Companies Are Represented
We, or at least Volvo, hopes you aren't tired of hearing about companies such as Google and Nvidia, because they're involved with the EX60 now. The SUV's overall computer system, which Volvo has named HuginCore after a mythological bird, incorporates hardware from Qualcomm and Nvidia. It also provides computational power to run Google's large language model generative AI called Gemini. Apparently it will be the first Volvo with Gemini, though other Volvos are slated to get it, as are Polestars.
What exactly will it help with? Well, Volvo has a few ideas.
"For example, drivers can ask Gemini to find a hotel booking address in their email, check if a recently bought item fits in their EX60 trunk, or brainstorm ideas for an upcoming road trip."
We're not sure how many people are doing most of their road trip brainstorming when they're already in the car, but maybe there are more people doing that than we realize. The company also notes that Gemini will allow people to speak to the car naturally to operate different functions and give relatively complex multi-step directions.
Volvo also says that it will add additional functionality over time via over-the-air updates. The company suggested that it may be able to let Gemini use the car's exterior cameras to see your location and offer information about surroundings. Also, to let the system do everything that has been mentioned, Volvo will provide four years of complimentary data service.
We Also Get A Peek At The Interior
Volvo's announcement about range came with a teaser image of the EX60's exterior, and with this technology announcement, it provided one for the interior. This one arguably shows us more, since it shows us a close-up of the SUV's center stack. While a number of automakers are reversing course on touchscreen-centric controls, Volvo seems to even more committed to them. We can see a large vertical screen, likely with an evolution of the user interface we've experienced in the bigger EX90, which also lacks many buttons.
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
