Autocarb

Volvo and Ericsson Team Up on Intelligent Media Streaming for Autonomous Cars

Volvo and Ericsson, two of Sweden’s pioneers in their respective industries, have announced at CES 2016 that they’re collaborating on bringing intelligent media streaming to self-driving cars.

Autonomous cars may take away the pleasure of driving, but Volvo and Ericsson think that there will be solutions that compensate for that. For starters, they’ve started working on ways to bring uninterrupted streaming to self-driving vehicles. That implies not only high-bandwidth, but also intelligent content buffering for no interruptions while traveling in areas where there’s no network coverage.

“We recently unveiled our design vision for fully autonomous cars with Concept 26. Now we are actively working on future solutions to deliver the best user experience in fully autonomous mode. Imagine a highway full of autonomous cars with their occupants sitting back watching their favorite TV shows in high definition. This new way of commuting will demand new technology, and a much broader bandwidth to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience,” said Anders Tylman, General Manager Volvo Monitoring & Concept Center at Volvo Car Group.

Depending on the route and on the network coverage, this system, which is based on Ericsson’s network and cloud expertise, will proceed to adjusting the content and the amount of content to be buffered.

“Our research shows that almost 70 per cent of all mobile data traffic will be from video in the coming years. This requires an innovative connectivity, cloud and analytics solution that is not only capable of serving multiple moving vehicles across a highway, but also has the capacity to provide the high quality, uninterrupted video service today’s consumer is accustomed to,” added Claes Herlitz, Head of Automotive Services at Ericsson.

“If you want to watch the latest episode of your favorite series, the car will know how long the journey needs to take and can optimize the route and driving control accordingly. With autonomous drive it is no longer just a question of just getting from A to B quickly – it’s about the experience you wish to have in the car – how you wish to spend the time you are saving. With our future autonomous drive technology we will provide people with the freedom to choose the way they would like to commute and the content they would like to experience,” concluded Anders Tylman.

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