Gothenburg, Sweden – September 22, 2026 -- Volvo Cars has become the lead industry partner for Horizon, an open-source software development platform built by Accenture and Google Cloud to speed up car software engineering for Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS).
Volvo Cars migrates global AAOS development to the new platform
As lead partner, Volvo Cars is moving its entire global AAOS software development environment onto Horizon, gaining access to cloud-native development tools, virtual testing environments and AI-assisted workflows. Gregor Zetsche, Head of Connected Experience at Volvo Cars, said the platform lets engineers directly tackle their toughest engineering challenges and deliver new experiences faster.
Horizon cuts software testing time by up to 9x and build times to minutes
The platform uses virtual Cuttlefish-based Android Automotive environments to enable large-scale testing with agentic AI, delivering testing speeds up to nine times faster than conventional methods. Intelligent caching and optimized build pipelines cut software build times from up to two hours down to minutes, according to Accenture and Google Cloud.
Infotainment development costs drop by as much as 40%
Horizon reduces infotainment feature development costs by up to 40%, the companies said. Remote access to virtual and physical device farms lets developers worldwide build and validate software without requiring costly physical test equipment, while virtual workbenches let new engineers instantiate development environments in seconds instead of waiting weeks for specialized hardware.
Accenture and Google Cloud plan to expand Horizon beyond Volvo Cars
Juergen Reers, Global Automotive & Mobility Lead at Accenture, said Horizon's standardized and scalable processes reduce time to market while allowing Volvo Cars engineers to focus on differentiated vehicle experiences. Henry Bzeih, Global Director, Automotive Industry at Google Cloud, said Horizon lets Volvo Cars release software and features at a cadence matching modern mobility expectations.
Accenture and Google Cloud, with Volvo Cars as lead industry partner, are already working with other automotive and industrial organizations to extend Horizon's reach into additional companies and markets.