Building cars is hard. Thousands of components must all come together to work safely and reliably, to create a product that meets all kinds of stringent legislation. Customers have to then want to buy it, and once you’ve sold it to them, you have to look after them, then anyone else to whom they might sell it.
The era of electric cars is no exception, but even greater complexity is being added into the business of building cars through all the software that is needed with the rise of more active safety and automated driving functions.
Some car makers are using this as an opportunity to revolutionise the in-car experience, among them Volvo.
I spoke with Alwin Bakkenes, head of software engineering for Volvo, at the launch of the new EX90, the computing power and software capabilities of which are central to the story.
