Announced prior to the start of the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, the new partnership will build on the carmaker’s Concept 26 vision for fully autonomous cars with next-generation broadband streaming – something the two firms say will become increasingly called for with the shift to driverless cars.

Claes Herlitz, ‎head of automotive services at Ericsson, said: “Our research shows that almost 70% of all mobile data traffic will be from video in the coming years. This requires an innovative connectivity, cloud and analytics solution that is not only capable of serving multiple moving vehicles across a highway, but also has the capacity to provide the high-quality, uninterrupted video service today’s consumer is accustomed to.”

“Imagine a highway full of autonomous cars with their occupants sitting back watching their favourite TV shows in high definition. This new way of commuting will demand new technology and a much broader bandwidth to ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience,” added Anders Tylman, general manager Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center at Volvo Car Group.

As well as offering interruption-free streaming, the technology will also put a focus on personalised and optimised content.

By learning the most common routes and times of travel, and understanding media preferences, Volvo says its future cars will be able to provide one-click navigation and a customised preference-based list of potential media – allowing customers to choose routes and select content tailored to the amount of autonomous time that is available during their commute.

“With our future autonomous drive technology we will provide people with the freedom to choose the way they would like to commute and the content they would like to experience,” concluded Anders Tylman.