2.5 Million Volvos Will Get This Big Software Update

Volvo debuted its new infotainment interface on the EX90 and XC90 SUVs. Via OTA updates, millions of older Volvos will get it too.

2025 Volvo XC90 new infotainment screen

Photo by: InsideEVs

Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Sep 8, 2024 at 11:00am ET

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The 2025 Volvo XC90, EX90 and EX30 feature a new Google infotainment screen.
Among many of its new features, the screen is meant to make driving less distracting, Volvo said.
Volvo's head of technology added that the infotainment will continue to improve over time with inputs from owners.

Volvo has delayed its plans to go fully electric by 2030, but EVs remain at the core of its future plans. That includes the new EX90 SUV, EX30 hatchback and five brand new EVs across segments planned for the remaining decade.

The company also has something for its existing customers: a big upgrade to the infotainment screen aimed to make the user experience easier and less distracting.

The updated XC90, EX90 and EX30 feature a new Google infotainment screen with an all-new human-machine interface (HMI). Central to the upgrade is how apps on the screen are laid out, how easily you can access critical functions and the level of customization allowed to suit your individual usage pattern.

2025 Volvo XC90 new infotainment screen.

The automaker said this upgrade will be beamed to 2.5 million existing Volvos globally through an over-the-air software update in 2025. So if your Volvo was manufactured in or after 2020 and features a Google infotainment, you're in to receive these upgrades.

So what exactly is new? For starters, the most common apps and controls, like maps, media and phone will now be presented on the home screen itself. This is meant to take fewer taps on the screen to open a particular app or function. Your main apps can be added to a contextual bar at the bottom of the screen.

Volvo said the new technology stack was developed to benefit old cars too. "We can take that work, port it all the way back in the old Intel hardware and get a great experience and modern feel in two and a half million cars," Anders Bell, Chief Engineering & Technology Officer at Volvo Cars told reporters during a roundtable discussion at the company's headquarters in Sweden this week.

Many of these upgrades were done after receiving customer feedback, Bell said. One of the upgrades is selecting drive modes without getting lost into the menus.

2025 Volvo XC90 infotainment screen

I played around with this system on the updated XC90 and it worked as advertised. It felt similar to my Google Pixel smartphone. The screen was slick, highly responsive and getting to drive modes took three clicks to be precise—only two if that's on the home screen.

This is also one of the reasons Volvo was moving away from physical buttons to integrating all into the touchscreen. "If you're stuck with a hardware button, you're actually holding back what we could deliver to the consumers by being hardware constrained," Bell said.

Developing functions into a screen means OEMs can continuously keep upgrading them based on customer feedback, deleting old things and adding new ones over time. Volvo is gathering billions of data points to make this happen.

Gallery: 2025 Volvo XC90 Full Gallery

2025 Volvo XC901

2025 Volvo XC902 2025 Volvo XC903 2025 Volvo XC904 2025 Volvo XC905 2025 Volvo XC906 2025 Volvo XC907

Source: Volvo

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Bell said Volvo was listening to customers and the shift was "not only to a data-driven product, but data-driven decision making and data-driven improvements of every aspect, both optimizing and deleting stuff that's not appreciated or not used."

When asked if Volvo was getting permission to gather all this data, he said customers can easily opt out. "You get a consent form, which you can read on your screen and see what we're going to do, how it works, and then you accept or reject."

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