Björn Annwall, Volvos’ senior vice president of marketing, sales and service, said: “HoloLens offers the freedom to create a bespoke experience which customers can steer themselves. Imagine using mixed reality to choose the type of car you want – to explore the colours, rims, or get a better understanding of the features, services and options available,”
Scott Erickson, senior director, Microsoft HoloLens at Microsoft, added: “We are thrilled to be working with Volvo to reimagine what is possible in car design, discovery and purchasing.”
Areas of future collaboration between the two companies could include autonomous driving technologies. Volvo has announced a programme called Drive-Me in which 100 self-driving and connected cars will be given to real customers on the roads around Gothenburg by 2017, claimed to be the world’s largest autonomous driving experiment.
Other areas of cooperation are expected to include how information gathered by cars and their drivers can be used to enhance the driving experience and the possibility of using predictive analytics to improve safety.
“We are extremely happy to innovate with Microsoft in the field of future mobility,” said Klas Bendrik, senior vice president and chief information officer at Volvo. “Today’s technology will allow us to achieve not only a more sustainable and crash-free future but also new benefits for our customers and society.”
