Volvo Will Use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine for Next-Gen Graphics – CNET [CNET]

We’ll see the fruits of their combined labor in an electric flagship model debuting later this year.

This story is part of Plugged In, CNET’s hub for all things EV and the future of electrified mobility. From vehicle reviews to helpful hints and the latest industry news, we’ve got you covered.

Epic Games’ Unreal Engine is a video game engine that is capable of an impressive amount of realism. It underpins a number of popular games through its many iterations over the years, but video games are just one place where something this powerful can be put to good use.

Volvo this week announced that it has partnered with Epic Games to bring some major visual upgrades to the next generation of Volvo’s telematics. The automaker becomes the first European OEM to team up with Epic for this purpose, which will bring some impressive improvements to the system’s graphics, from rendering to 3D animation.

In addition to relying on Unreal Engine to craft some slick graphics, Volvo will also boost the underlying bits of its infotainment with the third generation of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Cockpit platform, which should provide some major processing power to keep everything running smoothly. According to Volvo’s press release, this upgrade will double overall speeds and improve graphics generation and processing by a factor of 10.

If you’re wondering when you’ll be able to enjoy the end product, the answer is not too far over the horizon. We’ll see the results of this collaboration on Volvo’s upcoming all-electric flagship model, which the automaker will unveil to the public later this year. It’s the first vehicle in Volvo’s grand plan to go EV-only by 2030. Riding on the same SPA II platform as other upcoming models, expect the still-unnamed model to borrow a hefty bit of styling inspiration from the gorgeous Concept Recharge that debuted in mid-2021.

And before you ask, no, you probably won’t be able to play Fortnite in the car.