Films, music and video streamed directly to your car will become a part of the self-driving car experience with a high bandwidth service under development by Volvo Cars and technology partner Ericsson.

At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Volvo revealed that it is collaborating with Ericsson to deliver intelligent, high bandwidth, streaming capabilities that allows the occupants of its self-driving cars to watch their favourite TV shows while commuting.

“Imagine a highway full of autonomous cars with their occupants sitting back watching their favourite TV shows in high definition. This new way of commuting will demand new technology and a much broader bandwidth to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience,” said Anders Tylman, General Manager, Volvo Cars Monitoring & Concept Center.

Utilizing Ericsson’s network and cloud expertise, Volvo Cars’ aim is to deliver a high quality, interruption-free experience in its cars whilst on the move. By predicting your route and looking ahead at network conditions, content can be tailored to the duration of each trip and intelligently buffered to deliver a high quality and uninterrupted viewing experience.

“Our research shows that almost 70 per cent of all mobile data traffic will be from video in the coming years,” said Claes Herlitz, Head of Automotive Services at Ericsson. “This requires an innovative connectivity, cloud and analytics solution that is not only capable of serving multiple moving vehicles across a highway, but also has the capacity to provide the high quality, uninterrupted video service today’s consumer is accustomed to.”

Streaming media to self-driving cars will change the way we travel. The self-driving car’s ability to choose a route with more Autonomous time means it will be able to tailor journey times to the length of your favorite TV show. Or by finding content that matches the length of your commute the car can provide you with a customized selection based on your media habits and preferences.

“With autonomous drive it is no longer a question of just getting from A to B quickly. It’s about the experience you wish to have in the car, and how you wish to spend the time you are saving. With our future autonomous drive technology we will provide people with the freedom to choose the way they would like to commute and the content they would like to experience,” said Anders Tylman.