Volvo expands its Google partnership to convey new options like Gemini to vehicles sooner

Following the announcement that Gemini is coming to cars, Volvo is utilizing I/O 2025 to announce a brand new expanded partnership with Google. The businesses’ new deal makes Volvo’s vehicles reference {hardware} for future Android Automotive OS improvement, and means Volvo drivers might be “among the many first to profit” when Gemini totally replaces Google Assistant in vehicles.

Volvo describes itself as Google’s “lead improvement companion for brand new options and updates,” making the corporate’s vehicles the primary to obtain new updates to the Android Automotive OS. Google provides Android Auto as its CarPlay-like resolution for beaming a software program interface out of your telephone to in-car shows, however its Automotive OS is extra full, operating in your automobile regionally and related to automobile controls for A/C and extra. You possibly can already expertise Android Automotive OS in Volvo’s EX90, for instance.

Google’s present imaginative and prescient for Android in vehicles is, maybe unsurprisingly, targeted on getting drivers to speak to Gemini. In a automobile with the assistant, you’ll ask Gemini to ship a message, pull up instructions, or reply the extra open-ended, pure language questions that Gemini Live is designed to deal with. If it really works as marketed, it appears higher than pecking at a display, and Volvo notes it might “assist scale back your cognitive load in an effort to keep targeted on driving.”

There is no launch date for when you may count on Gemini to point out up as your driving copilot, however on the very least this new partnership means it’s going to be in Volvos first.