Latest news with #AlwinBakkenes
Forbes
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Forbes
Volvo: Gaussian Splatting Is Our Secret Ingredient For Safer Cars
For decades, the Volvo brand has been synonymous with safety. But keeping passengers secure is no longer just about a strong cabin or cleverly designed crumple zones. Increasingly, safety is about semi-autonomous driving technology that can mitigate collisions or even avoid them entirely. Volvo intends to be ahead of the game in this era too. Its secret weapon? Something called 'Gaussian Splatting'. I asked Volvo's Head of Software Engineering Alwin Bakkenes and subsidiary Zenseact's VP Product Erik Coelingh exactly what this is and why it's so important. 'We have a long history of innovations based on data,' says Bakkenes. 'The accident research team from the 70s started with measuring tapes. Now in the digital world we're collecting millions of real-life events. That data has helped us over the years to develop a three-point safety belt and the whiplash protection system. Now, we can see from the data we collect from fleets that a very large portion of serious accidents happen in the dark on country roads where vulnerable road users are involved. That's why, with the ES90 that we just launched, we are also introducing a function called lighter AAS where we have enabled the car to steer away from pedestrians walking on the side of the road or cyclists, which in the dark you can't see even if you have your high beam on. This technology picks that up earlier than a human driver.' The Volvo EX90 SUV will also benefit from this technology. 'If you want to lead in collision avoidance and self-driving, you need to have the best possible data from the real world,' adds Bakkenes. 'But everyone is looking also at augmenting that with simulated data. The next step is fast automation, so we're using state-of-the-art end-to-end models to achieve speed in iterations. But sometimes these models hallucinate. To avoid that, we use our 98 years of safety experience and these millions of data points as guardrails to make sure that the car behaves well because we believe that when you start to automate it needs to be trusted. For us every kilometer driven with Pilot Assist or Pilot Assist Plus needs to be safer than when you've driven it yourself. In the world of AI data is king. We use Gaussian Splatting to enhance our data set.' 'Cars are driven all around the world in different weather and traffic conditions by different people,' says Coelingh. 'The variation is huge. We collect millions of data points, but it's still a limited amount compared to reality. Gaussian Splatting is a new technology that some of our PhD students have been developing the last few years into a system where you can take a single data point from the real world where you have all the sensor, camera, radar and LIDAR sequences and then blow it up into thousands or tens of thousands of different scenarios. In that way, you can get a much better representation of the real world because we can test our software against this huge variation. If you do it in software, you can test much faster, so then you can iterate your software much more quickly and improve our product.' 'Gaussian Splatting is used in different areas of AI,' continues Coelingh. 'It comes from the neural radiance fields from nerves.' The original version worked with static images. 'The first academic paper was about a drum kit where somebody took still pictures from different angles and then the neural net was trained on those pictures to create a 3D model. It looked perfect from any angle even though there was only a limited set of pictures available. Later that technology was expanded from 3D to 4D space-time, so you could also do it on the video set. We now do this not just with video data, but also with LiDAR and radar data.' A real-world event can be recreated from every angle. 'We can start to manipulate other road users in this scenario. We can manipulate real world scenarios and do different simulations around this to make sure that our system is robust to variations.' Volvo uses this system particularly to explore how small adjustments could prevent accidents. 'Most of the work that we do is not about the crash itself,' says Coelingh. 'It's much more about what's happening 4-5 seconds before the crash or potential crash. The data we probe is from crashes, but it's also from events where our systems already did an intervention and in many cases those interventions come in time to prevent an accident and in some cases they come late and we only mitigated it. But all these scenarios are relevant because they happen in the real world, and they are types of edge case. These are rare, but through this technology of Gaussian Splatting, we can go from a few edge cases to suddenly many different edge cases and thereby test our system against those in a way that we previously could not.' This is increasingly important for addressing the huge variation in global driving habits and conditions a safety system will be expected to encounter. 'Neural Nets are good at learning these types of patterns,' says Coelingh. 'Humans can see that because of the behavior of a car the driver is talking into their phone, either slowing down or wiggling in the lane. If you have an end-to-end neural network using representations from camera images, LiDAR and radar, it will anticipate those kinds of things. We are probing data from cars all around the world where Volvo Cars are being driven.' The system acts preemptively, so it can perform a safety maneuver for example when a pedestrian appears suddenly in the path of the vehicle. 'You have no time to react,' says Coelingh. Volvo's safety system will be ready, however. 'Even before that, the car already detects free space. It can do an auto steer and it's a very small correction. It doesn't steer you out of lane. It doesn't jerk you around. It slows down a little bit and it does the correction. It's undramatic, but the impact is massive. Oncoming collisions are incredibly severe. Small adjustments can have big benefits.' Volvo has developed one software platform to cover both safety and autonomy. 'The software stack that we develop is being used in different ways,' says Coelingh. 'We want the driver to drive manually undisturbed unless there's a critical situation. Then we try to assist in the best possible way to avoid collision, either by warning, steering, auto braking or a combination of those. Then we also do cruising or L2 automation.' Volvo demonstrated how it has been using Gaussian Splatting at NVIDIA's GTC in April. 'We went deeply into the safe automation concept,' says Bakkenes. 'Neural nets are good at picking up things that you can't do in a rule-based system. We're developing one stack based on good fleet data which has end-to-end algorithms to achieve massive performance, and it has guard rails to make sure we manage hallucinations. It's not like we have a collision avoidance stack and then we have self-driving stack.' 'There was a conscious decision that if we improve performance, then we want the benefits of that to be both for collision avoidance in manual driving and for self-driving,' says Coelingh. 'We build everything from the same stack, but the stack itself is scalable. It's one big neural network that we can train. But then there are parts that we can deploy separately to go from our core premium ADAS system all the way to a system that can do unsupervised automation. Volvo's purpose is to get to zero collisions, saving lives. We use AI and all our energy to get there.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Volvo Cars, Google expand partnership to deploy Gemini AI in vehicles
This story was originally published on Automotive Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Automotive Dive newsletter. Volvo Cars is expanding its partnership with Google to rapidly deploy its Gemini AI-powered assistant to more of its vehicles featuring Google built-in, the automaker announced on May 21. As part of the expanded collaboration, Volvo vehicles will serve as one of Google's reference hardware platforms for the future deployment of Android Automotive OS (AAOS), which is designed to replace an OEM vehicle infotainment system. 'We're excited to deepen this partnership, accelerating the pace of innovation that will not only improve the driving experience for Volvo customers but also set new benchmarks for the automotive industry,' said Patrick Brady, VP of Android for Cars at Google, in the release. The more feature-rich Gemini AI-powered voice assistant will replace the current Google Assistant of Volvo vehicles later this year, making the automaker's customers among the first to access the latest version of Google's generative AI technology. Gemini allows drivers and passengers to request information about virtually any topic using natural conversations. For example, drivers can ask Gemini questions about the vehicle's user manual or request specific details about a destination before arriving. The AI-powered assistant can also help drivers draft messages, which can be translated into over 40 different languages before sending. Google has also selected Volvo Cars as its lead development partner for testing new features and updates, before adding them to the Android codebase for access to software developers. The Android codebase is known as the 'Android Open Source Project' and the software it contains is free for developers to use. The platform allows anyone to view, modify and distribute code for their own use. Google offers the developer community extensive resources and guidelines for creating Android-based apps. According to Volvo, its expanded partnership with Google will help 'accelerate advancements in the connected car space for the entire automotive industry' and for drivers globally. 'We strive to deliver human-centric technology, and a stunning customer experience is an essential part of this,' said Alwin Bakkenes, head of global software engineering at Volvo Cars, in the release. 'With our expanding partnership, we're collaborating on cutting-edge solutions that shape the future of connected cars.' The Google partnership with Volvo advances the rollout of AAOS currently used by Volvo Cars. Vehicles running AAOS do not require syncing with a smartphone for access to popular Google services. Volvo vehicles with Google built-in come with Google Play, Google Assistant, Google Maps and other popular apps. For Volvo models equipped with AAOS, the vehicle's infotainment system serves as a standalone Android device. Drivers can download and install Android or other-third party apps directly to their vehicle's infotainment system. The latest version of AAOS was released in December 2024. In addition to future Volvo vehicles, Gemini will be made available for other OEM brands featuring Google built-in later this year, including the new Lincoln Nautilus, Honda Passport and select Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Acura vehicles. Google also announced that it is adding Gemini to Android Auto in the coming months, which can mirror apps wirelessly on compatible models from a smartphone that's synced to a vehicle. Recommended Reading Google is adding its AI-powered Gemini voice assistant to Android Auto Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Hindustan Times
24-05-2025
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
Volvo to integrate Google Gemini AI in its cars. Designed for more natural conversation
Google's Gemini AI will replace Assistant in Volvo cars, enhancing voice interactions and reducing driver distraction. Google Gemini will be replacing the current Google Assistant, which comes with Volvo's Android Auto UI. Check Offers The race to redefine in-car technology has intensified and Google is stepping up to maintain its lead. Just a few days after Apple grabbed headlines with its upgraded CarPlay Ultra system in collaboration with Aston Martin, Google has now announced a major advancement of its own, integrating its AI-powered voice assistant, Gemini, into Volvo's product lineup. Starting later this year, Volvo vehicles running Android Automotive will receive a significant upgrade, replacing Google Assistant with Google Gemini. This will mark a new chapter in Google's collaboration with the Swedish automaker, which has been using Android Automotive as standard software in all new models. Also Read : Apple CarPlay Ultra debuts in Aston Martin DBX 707. Now gets multi-screen support Smarter, more natural voice interactions Gemini, already available on Android smartphones, is designed to enable more intuitive and conversational voice commands. Volvo drivers will be able to interact with their car in more natural language, whether it's pulling information from the digital owner's manual, finding a nearby restaurant or planning a trip. The AI assistant goes beyond standard tasks like navigation and music control. Gemini can compose and translate messages, look up recipes and even build a shopping list, all while keeping drivers' hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Volvo says the enhanced conversational ability of Gemini will help reduce the mental load on drivers. 'Reducing your cognitive load so that you can stay focused on driving" is central to the company's vision of safety and user-friendly tech. Also Read : Don't point your smartphone camera at Volvo EV90. Here's why Volvo at forefront of Google's automotive plans In a move that positions Volvo as a key tech player in the automotive space, the company will now serve as Google's lead development partner for Android Automotive. This means new features and operating system updates — like the jump from Android 13 to Android 15 — will debut in Volvo vehicles first. Android 15, which only recently became available for mobile devices, is expected to roll out to Volvo cars later this year. Other carmakers using Android Automotive may have to wait up to two years for the same upgrade, according to Volvo's global software head Alwin Bakkenes. 'We strive to deliver human-centric technology, and a stunning customer experience is an essential part of this," Bakkenes told Reuters. 'With our expanding partnership, we're collaborating on cutting-edge solutions that shape the future of connected cars." Check out Upcoming Cars in India 2024, Best SUVs in India. First Published Date: 24 May 2025, 08:48 AM IST
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Volvo drivers to get Google's Gemini AI as in-car assistant
Volvo and Google have announced expanded partnership with the introduction of Gemini in the Swedish firm's vehicles. Google Gemini is an AI generated service and was first showcased in a Volvo EX90 at Google's I/O conference earlier this year. Owners of Volvo cars with this feature will be able to have conversations with Gemini while driving. They can ask it to create messages, translate them into different languages before sending, request information from the car's owner's manual and learn specific details about their destination. Patrick Brady, vice president for Android for Cars, Android, said: 'For years, Google and Volvo Cars have collaborated closely to bring cutting-edge technology to connected cars. We're excited to deepen this partnership, accelerating the pace of innovation that will not only improve the driving experience for Volvo customers but can also set new benchmarks for the automotive industry.' The integration aims to make it easier for the driver to stay focused on the road and reduce distractions. Alwin Bakkenes, head of global software engineering at Volvo Cars, said: 'We strive to deliver human-centric technology, and a stunning customer experience is an essential part of this. Through this partnership with Google, we are able to bring the very latest features and capabilities from the leading consumer ecosystem into our products first. With our expanding partnership, we're collaborating on cutting-edge solutions that shape the future of connected cars.' The Gemini system will replace the old Google Assistant in Volvo cars with Google built-in later this year.
Express Tribune
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Express Tribune
Volvo Cars expands collaboration with Google to develop Android software for smarter driving
Listen to article Volvo Cars will become the lead development partner for Android Automotive, allowing it to deploy the latest versions of Google's operating system faster than industry rivals, the companies said on Wednesday. Announced at Google's I/O developer conference in California, the partnership will see Volvo's flagship EX90 electric SUV ship later this year with Android 15 — the latest version of Google's mobile OS. Other automakers often wait up to two years for similar updates. 'We're going to be able to be fast in bringing new capabilities, new features and new experiences to our customers,' said Alwin Bakkenes, Volvo's head of global software engineering. Volvo currently runs Android 13 across its vehicles, but the upgraded collaboration means Google engineers will now test new software directly in Volvo cars, helping them evaluate user experiences in real-world conditions. 'This really gives us an edge in building fantastic customer experiences,' Bakkenes said. As part of the announcement, Google also confirmed that its new Gemini artificial intelligence model will soon power in-car interactions across Android Auto and vehicles with Google built-in — including Volvo models. Unlike standard voice assistants, Gemini will enable more natural conversations while driving. Instead of issuing fixed commands, drivers can simply speak in a conversational tone to find the best route, check for stops along the way, or request summaries of unread messages. 'For example, Gemini can find you a charging station on the way to the post office that's also near a park, so you can go for a walk while your car is charging,' Google said. Gemini will also offer features like real-time news briefings, book synopses for book club commutes, and even language translation in replies to messages — all without drivers having to touch their screens. Bakkenes said such hands-free experiences are essential for safety and comfort: 'This creates a human-centric experience.' The AI model will first become available in Android Auto in the coming months, with a broader rollout to cars with Google built-in to follow. Volvo and Google have worked together for over a decade, but this deeper collaboration signals a turning point in the convergence of automotive and mobile technologies — with Volvo now positioned at the forefront of in-car software innovation.
