Volvo’s high-end cars will come with Skype built in
Many people depend on Skype to chat with family, colleagues and clients throughout their working day. To help them stay connected while they’re outside the office, Volvo has announced plans to integrate Skype for Business into its high-end 90 Series cars. Accessible through a large touchscreen dashboard, drivers will see a list of scheduled meetings and a shortcut to their complete contact list. Tapping once will reveal a meeting summary, including the organiser, participants and the ways in which they can join the call. A “Join Meeting” shortcut will reside at the bottom so users can quickly dial in — no pesky pin codes required (hopefully).
Connectivity is handled through your paired smartphone, presumably. Skype is notorious for its dodgy call quality, so here’s hoping it fares a little better in the car. In a press release, Volvo says it’s also exploring how Cortana, Microsoft’s personal assistant, could be added to its vehicles. The automaker is looking at “seamless voice recognition” and “contextual insights” based on the time, location and schedule of the driver. When these efforts will materialize in a dashboard update is unclear, however. Any addition would help Microsoft compete with Apple and Google, who are targeting the industry with CarPlay and Android Auto respectively.
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