Volvo has just entered into a partnership with Epic Games, the creator of Fornite and the Unreal Engine, a 3D engine well known to gamers. The idea is to integrate the Unreal Engine into the brand’s future vehicles, alongside Qualcomm’s Snapdragons, in order to improve the driver’s experience with the screens.
The proliferation of screens in cars can cause attention problems. Volvo, which wants to be the leading manufacturer in road safety, has understood the problem well and wants to drastically review the Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) of its cars. It is in this context that the Swedish brand announced its desire to create a new operating system using Epic Games’ famous Unreal Engine graphics engine. The idea is to completely review the digital interfaces of the brand’s vehicles, in order to benefit from high-quality real-time graphic renderings.
A new interface for the future Volvo XC90
First, Volvo wants to completely overhaul the driver information module (where the speedometer is displayed in particular). The brand thus indicates that ” customers of the next generation of Volvo cars will enjoy impressive, high-quality graphics on these screens“. The second step will probably be the redesign of the central screen. It is true that most manufacturers offer somewhat aging interfaces, especially when compared to the interfaces of computers or smartphones. But this is not the case with Tesla, which has for years been offering an interface that is visually much more attractive than the interfaces that can be found with the competition.
Volvo says the first car to feature this new interface will be unveiled later this year. We imagine that this interface will be reserved for the brand’s future XC90 SUV, the famous Swedish flagship which should take the opportunity to switch entirely to electric motorization.
Snapdragons for better performance
If Volvo uses Nvidia chips for semi-autonomous driving, the manufacturer announces in its press release that it will use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon (via the Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms). These are the same chips found in smartphones, allowing, according to Volvo, 2x faster performance for the infotainment system than the current system. Recall that this uses Android-Automotive since a few months. We had also had the opportunity to test it: it was functional, but it is true that visually, we were not thrilled.
Volvo is not the only manufacturer to work with Epic Games. Indeed, GMC has also entered into a partnership to use the Unreal Engine in its future Hummer EV, which should arrive in dealerships at the end of the year. So, which of Volvo or GMC will be the first to market a car running under Unreal Engine? And what Unreal player could have imagined, in 1998, that a version of the graphics engine of this famous game would make its debut in the automotive world?
Volvo will soon announce its new XC90 SUV. In addition to a name change, the new generation XC90 will be entitled to a new design, but also to a 100% electric engine.
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