Volvo Trucks finished its North American rollout of unattended software updates

Volvo Trucks North America said on September 10 that software updates which complete while the truck is parked and locked are now available across the United States and Canada, on the new VNL and VNR models. The driver starts an update, locks the vehicle and leaves; the company said it can run during a 30-minute break or an overnight stop.

The release put figures on the wider connected-services program. Volvo said it estimates that over-the-air updates, remote diagnostics and predictive service together have helped customers avoid more than 100,000 days of unplanned downtime, representing approximately 60 million dollars in avoided costs. It said the share of connected trucks running the latest software rose from 25 percent to more than 80 percent over six months, that more than 7,500 updates were completed in August, and that its systems can dispatch up to 20,000 updates a day.

The company also said trucks on the latest software see 24 percent fewer unplanned stops, that it has more than 220,000 connected trucks in North America, and that pre-diagnosis produces a 95 percent first-time fix rate. All of those figures are the company’s own and were not independently verified.

Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America, and Nicole Portello, senior vice president and chief digital officer, were quoted in the release.

The company is part of AB Volvo, and is a separate business from the passenger-car maker Volvo Cars.