As the car industry gears toward an electric future, Volvo is now following in the “if you can’t beat them join them” footsteps of Tesla. It is safe to say that legacy carmakers, Volvo among them, have been slow to embrace digital technologies. And it is fair to say car companies will morph into providing software and related services because it is more lucrative than actually building and selling cars.

The prelude to this analog-digital convergence can be seen with Volvo Cars’ latest over-the-air (OTA) software update to all Volvo cars with Google built in, enabling a variety of features and improvements.

One of the new functionalities will include the rollout of Apple CarPlay, enabling iPhone users to feel a level playing field of smartphone connectivity with Android Auto users.

Users can now connect their iPhone via USB to their Volvo car and access apps from their iPhone, wherever Apple CarPlay is available.

Since the beginning of 2021, Volvo Cars has been offering OTA updates on a regular basis, and it is a key technology for delivering on the company’s ambition of making customers’ cars continuously better.

With continuous over-the-air updates, Volvo Cars aims to make ownership easier and more flexible. It enables customers to enjoy the latest software and new, updated features on their Volvo car via a few clicks on their in-car screen.

The previous OTA update, which was released in April, has been deployed to more than 197,000 cars. The most recent OTA release will be available in 14 new markets, and the company expects the volume of cars covered by such updates to grow with every new update.

Together with the April update, Volvo Cars also announced that all new Volvo car models are able to receive software updates.