May 21 (Reuters) - Volvo Cars and Alphabet's Google said

on Wednesday the Swedish carmaker was now the lead development

partner for Android automotive software, which should give its

buyers access to new versions long before they are available via

car industry rivals.

"We're going to be able to be fast in bringing new

capabilities, new features and new experiences to our

customers," Alwin Bakkenes, Volvo's head of global

software engineering, told Reuters. "This really gives us an

edge in building fantastic customer experiences."

The two companies have been working together for a decade,

but the deeper partnership means Google engineers will

drive Volvo cars with the latest software to "experience how

their product behaves in a real context much earlier and much

faster", Bakkenes said.

He said on average the auto industry was about two Android

releases behind mobile phones, which "means things you can do on

your mobile phone, in many cases you cannot do in the car".

Volvo vehicles currently operate using Android 13, but at

Google's I/O annual developer conference underway in Mountain

View, California, the two companies are demonstrating Volvo's

flagship EX90 electric SUV running on Android 15 - the latest

version of Google's mobile operating system - which will roll

out in production models later this year.

"Others might have to wait two years to get" that latest

version of Android, Bakkenes said.

At the I/O conference the two companies also demonstrated

Google's Gemini artificial intelligence model running in the

EX90, which Volvo is going to roll out to cars with Google

built-in.

Bakkenes said rather than drivers having to search through

their phones for their destination, they can ask Gemini to

search their emails or messages for it. Or drivers can, for

instance, ask Gemini to find recipes and then put a shopping

list on their phone to create "a human-centric experience",

Bakkenes said.