Volvo XC90 & S90 Concierge Service will even take your car and fill it up with fuel

Volvo is launching a trial concierge service in San Francisco offering XC90 and S90 owners a range of services including servicing, refuelling and moving their cars.

The car landscape, and the car owning experience, is going to change out of all recognition in the next decade, if for no there reason than that autonomous cars will make car owning a much less immersive experience than it has been.

So instead of many owners cherishing their cars and wanting to care for them, the car will become, for very many, just a transport tool, and the more hands-off (no autonomous pun intended) owners are able to be the happier they will probably be with the whole car experience.

To that end, Volvo are looking for ways to enhance the car owning experience, and have come up with a Volvo Concierge service.

Planned to run just as a trial in San Francisco – ultimately for 300 XC90 and S90 owners – Volvo is focussing, at least initially, on the car-owning chores we all find most irksome.

According to Volvo’s research, over 70% of owners hate having to go and refuel their cars, 60% want their car picked up for servicing needs (if your dealer isn’t already doing this you need to find a new one) and over 50% would like to be able to have their car moved elsewhere.

Anders Tylman-Mikiewicz, Volvo’s Connectivity Services chap, said:

Our approach is a simple one – we aim to make life easier by employing the latest connected technology in an easy-to-use smartphone app. We are taking an open and agile approach to this and welcome collaboration with partners with new and innovative service offers. This is just the beginning.

The Volvo Concierge Service users will get an App identifying the services they can access in their vicinity and order them up, with the App giving the service provider a one-time electronic key to access the car and perform the requested services.

It’s a cute idea, but one that is clearly going to need a big bank of freelance service providers (certainly for stuff like refuelling and valeting).

Perhaps a role to be filled by the millions of professional drivers who will lose their livelihood when autonomous cars become a reality?