Volvo has started the roll-out of "one of the biggest over-the-air updates in the history of the world", remotely installing a new infotainment interface in 2.5 million cars worldwide.

Every Volvo equipped with the company's Android Automotive operating system – which was launched in 2020 on the XC40 Recharge (now badged EX40) – will receive the new Volvo Car UX (user experience) that features in the EX30, EX90 and new EX60. 

It means that a 2020 Volvo will effectively have the same displays and functionality as the latest models.

Hailing it as "one of the biggest over-the-air updates in the history of the world", Volvo chief technology officer Anders Bell (below) said the aim is to essentially bring those older models up to date, which is widely touted as the main benefit of modern cars being 'connected': with the ability to update remotely, they can stay 'in-date' for far longer than before.

Bell acknowledged that Tesla regularly performs huge fleet-wide updates of its cars but said Volvo operates in more countries, making this one of the most significant yet.

He also said all updated models will have essentially the same infotainment as the EX90, allowing for some slight differences because of the older silicon processing chips and smaller screens.

"We're going to deploy that back to those cars to give them a necessary, very nice upgrade of the owner's interaction experience with the car."

Anders added that once the system has been updated, "it's a pretty easy update to replace the current Google Assistant with Gemini", referring to the EX60's newer and more advanced Google voice assistant - a separate update coming this spring.

Gaining the new Google Gemini system means that owners of eligible cars will be able to have the same 'conversational' interactions with their cars as is said to be possible in the latest models.

Volvo said: "Gemini in the car can better understand ​what you want while driving through natural conversations​. You can talk naturally to craft messages, translate them into another language before sending, ask questions from the car’s user manual or learn specific details about your destination. 

"This kind of natural conversation can help reduce your cognitive load so that you can stay focused on driving, reducing distractions for everyone on board."