Volvo to embrace the digital world with next gen cars

If you thought Unreal Engine was all about movies and gaming, then think again, as it’s shortly to be playing a starring role on a car dashboard near you.

But don’t get the wrong idea – you won’t be cruising on auto-pilot in the fast lane whilst watching the latest Marvel CGI-fest. What is happening is that Volvo is using Epic’s innovative game engine to create high-quality graphics inside the cabin of its next gen electric cars. Whoop!

The interesting part is just how the digital interfaces inside its cars will use the real-time graphics. Volvo says that it will initially focus on the driver information module (DIM), one of the displays inside the cabin that provides the driver with everything he or she needs to know while on the road.

The Volvo car developers and Epic went on to explain that customers will encounter impressive, high-quality graphics on those displays. Much sharper renderings, richer colours and brand new 3D animations are all promised.

Henrik Green, chief product officer at Volvo Cars went on to explain further: “To offer our customers the best possible user experience and contribute to a safe and personal drive, we need rich, immersive and responsive visualisation inside our cars. Running Unreal Engine in our cars enables this and makes it even more enjoyable to spend time inside a Volvo.”

As if this wasn’t enough, Unreal Engine will be coupled with the computing power of the third generation Qualcomm Snapdragon Cockpit Platforms. All of this means that the next generation of Volvo cars will set a thrilling new standard in graphics and infotainment system performance.

And this can only mean one thing – the next-gen Volvo infotainment system will be over twice as fast as before, while graphics generation and processing inside the cabin will increase by a whopping x 10!

Heiko Wenczel, Epic Games’ director of automotive and HMI for Unreal Engine could barely contain his excitement when he made a statement on behalf of the gaming giant: “When you bring interactive, high-resolution graphics running in real-time into the car, you open the door to a vast range of new ways to inform and entertain everyone inside.”

Heiko didn’t hold back with the flattery either: “Volvo Cars’ deeply talented design and product development teams have grasped this opportunity to do something fresh that will keep evolving with exciting new features that take advantage of the capabilities of Unreal Engine.”

Volvo’s first blushing bride to showcase the new tech will be unveiled later this year, as the company’s latest step towards being an electric-car-only manufacturer by 2030.

But that’s not all. Further into the future, Volvo wants to use Unreal Engine to advance other areas of tech within new cars. And that means even more exciting news for developers. By mid-decade it aims to recruit extensively within software development. By joining the company, coding talent has numerous opportunities to work on exciting and groundbreaking new in-car applications and platforms.

So, if you’ve ever longingly looked at one of James Bond’s gadgets-laden cars, rest assured that we’re not too far off that now… (Though we could do without the rocket launchers, thanks Volvo)