Volvo wants to harvest your real-time driving data – here’s why

Volvo’s plan to harness real-time driving data from its customers’ cars might ring a few Big Brother alarm bells in your head, but there is a good reason behind it and there will be an opt-in process whereby drivers will be able to choose whether or not they want to share this info.

This system will make its debut in Volvo’s first all-electric SUV, built on the new flat-floor platform, which is believed to be the successor to the current XC90.

The Swedish carmaker says that using real-time traffic data, including continuous inputs on the car’s environment from its LiDAR sensors, will allow the company to make improvements to its safety technology much more quickly. Naturally this will also expedite the roll-out of autonomous driving tech. Thus, the info that’s collected from millions of Volvo drivers around the world would allow engineers to validate autonomous driving features for specific geographical locations much faster. Furthermore, verified updates to existing systems could be rolled out through over-the-air updates.

Of course, we’re talking about a huge amount of data here – how is Volvo going to harness it? For that, the company is investing in a ‘data factory’ with a capacity of more than 225 million gigabytes, while artificial intelligence will apparently allow the data to be crunched at record pace.

“With help from real-life data we can speed up our development processes and go from years to days,” said the chief of Volvo’s AD software arm, Ödgärd Andersson. “As real-time collection generates a lot more data, we can create better and higher-quality data sets that allow us to make better and quicker decisions on the next advancements in safety. We’re taking a giant leap to increase safety in and around our cars.”