Google Cloud and Accenture Launch Horizon Platform with Volvo Cars

Modern vehicles now depend on complex in-car software, yet automotive engineering teams still struggle with long build times, limited test hardware and slow onboarding. A new industry initiative from Accenture, Google Cloud and Volvo Cars aims to change that.

Software-defined vehicles require a development environment that can match the pace of modern digital experiences. Navigation, voice assistants, connected services and over-the-air updates must evolve continuously, but many car makers still wait hours for each software build and weeks for developer onboarding. This is the challenge that the new Horizon platform is designed to solve.

What was announced

Accenture and Google Cloud announced that Volvo Cars has become the lead industry partner for Horizon, an open-source software development platform for Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS). Horizon combines cloud-native development tools, virtual testing environments and AI-assisted workflows into a unified platform so that car makers and automotive suppliers can build, test and deploy vehicle software more efficiently.

As lead industry partner, Volvo Cars is migrating its global AAOS software development environment to Horizon. Its engineering teams will gain faster workflows, virtual test benches and AI-assisted tooling, allowing them to focus on in-car experiences rather than infrastructure. Insights from the collaboration will be used to refine the platform and expand its generative AI capabilities for other automotive and industrial manufacturers.

We are building some of the most complex products in the world, which requires a development environment built to match. As Horizon lead industry partner, we can directly solve our toughest engineering challenges and empower our teams to deliver new experiences faster than ever

Why this matters

For CIOs, engineering directors and procurement leaders in the automotive and industrial sectors, Horizon addresses a core productivity gap. Faster build and test cycles directly translate into shorter time to market for new digital features, better use of expensive test hardware, and lower unit cost per released feature. The platform also standardizes processes across globally distributed teams, which simplifies vendor governance and supports scalable software-defined vehicle programs.

Horizon on Google Cloud gives Volvo Cars the ability to move faster while releasing high-quality software and features on a cadence that matches the expectations of modern mobility

Technical details

• Virtual AAOS testing: up to 9x faster software testing using Cuttlefish-based Android Automotive environments with agentic AI.
• Infotainment cost reduction: up to 40% lower development costs for infotainment features.
• Faster builds: intelligent caching and optimized pipelines reduce build feedback from up to two hours to minutes.
• Global device farms: remote access to virtual and physical device farms improves hardware utilization and reduces the need for costly physical test equipment.
• Virtual workbenches: new developers can instantiate their environments in seconds instead of waiting weeks for specialized hardware.

Softprom and Google

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This content was prepared as part of the Softprom DistriFlow project — an automated system for monitoring and adapting vendor news. Original source: original article.