Volvo has always strived to be in the forefront for innovation. This includes Volvo’s mobile connectivity services, which enable people to do things like remotely starting their engine heater, lock or unlock the car or check fuel level. Statistics show that people use these services very frequently. So we started to think of how to make these services even more accessible to the consumer.

Enter the smartwatch. The power of the smartwatch is that it’s even more accessible than the phone and just by glancing it or pushing a few buttons you can now check your cars’ status or perform advanced tasks. We hooked up with one of the most interesting smartwatch initiatives out there: Metawatch, which combines cutting edge technology with a stylish watch, well in line with Volvo’s design heritage. We put together a small cross-functional team of iOS and smartwatch developers and designers to connect the car, the smartphone and the watch via Bluetooth. The prototype went live at the MWC in Barcelona in February 2014 and allows users to control their car and check the most important dashboard data.

The Metawatch integration relies on a completely new and custom embedded hardware platform supporting Bluetooth 4.0 (LE) technology for efficient data communication. One of the many user benefits is the always-on-mode, which keeps the user up-to-date and works in background mode without compromising battery lifetime of either phone or watch. No more pulling up your phone to control your car, simply check your wrist.

The Volvo On Call smartphone app works as a controlling proxy between the car and the smartwatch, feeding the UI of the watch with graphics and data while keeping car state information up to date through a custom-built and innovative background service. The smartphone/smartwatch Bluetooth point-to-point link is a two-way communication channel utilising a custom protocol; all function calls pass through the app for validation before being sent to the car. All communication is secured and optimised for efficient and fast transfer.

By extending the app and letting it control both the logic of operations and the watch functionality the future possibilities are huge. The next step for the Metawatch/Volvo integration is to allow for full user customisation in regards to which services and car information the user would like to be served, making it an individual experience for each customer.

At the MWC we proved that Volvo stays at the forefront of innovation, enabling consumers to control their cars from wherever they are.

The prototype is the first step in making the connectivity services for Volvo cars accessible on new and innovative technology platforms. It may be other smartwatches; it can be other physical devices or services. The future lies in creating services that are designed around the way people live, how they use technology and that make people’s lives easier and less complicated, and we believe connected smartwatches is a very exciting area to keep exploring.