Your Volvo, ready when you are

Volvo's app lets you set one recurring climate schedule.

That's fine if you leave at the same time every day. Most people don't.

With Volvo, you have to choose one. With Moose, you can have all three. Or five. Or ten.

Create as many recurring climate schedules as you need.

It's essentially pressing "Start climate" in the Volvo app for you — automatically, at the times you chose.

Schedules are great for the things you do every week.

They're less useful when you're going out for dinner, seeing a film, visiting somewhere for the day, or doing something that doesn't happen on a regular timetable.

You often know roughly when you'll be back at the car. The problem is remembering to open the Volvo app shortly beforehand.

Moose is being built to solve that too.

You've parked for dinner and expect to leave around 9:30. As you get out of the car, scan a small tag or code and choose when you'll be back.

Done. Moose can then ask for climate control before you return. Forgot to scan it? A shortcut on your phone will take you straight to the same screen, without digging through the Volvo app or setting yourself a reminder.

None of this exists yet. It is what is being built next, and today the app does schedules only.

Your calendar already contains many of the one-off things you do.

The plan is to let Moose use the calendar events you choose to set up climate control for them, so you won't need to recreate the same plan twice.

The long-term goal is simple: your Volvo should be ready when you are. Only the first of those three is built.

You should know exactly what that means.

Moose deliberately asks Volvo for as little access as possible. It needs enough to identify your car and to ask Volvo to start climate control. It does not need access to:

• Your car's location
• Your journeys
• Your mileage
• Your charging history
• Locking or unlocking your doors
• Sounding the horn or flashing your lights

So Moose doesn't ask for those things.

When you connect, Volvo shows you a screen listing exactly what you are agreeing to. Volvo offers apps more than a hundred permissions to choose from. Moose asks for four.

• Your email address, so it can tell you when your car needs reconnecting.
• Which cars are on your account, so you can choose one.
• Permission to send your car a command.
• Permission to start and stop the climate control.

Starting the climate is the only thing it can tell your car to do. It does not ask to unlock or lock your doors, sound the horn, flash the lights, start the engine, see where you have driven, read your mileage, or look at your charging — and you can check that for yourself on Volvo's screen before you agree to anything.

Moose knows when you've asked it to start climate control. It doesn't know where your car is or where you've been.

When you connect Moose, you're sent to Volvo's own sign-in page. You enter your Volvo details there, not into Moose Climate.

Volvo then gives Moose limited permission to do the things you approved. Moose never sees or stores your Volvo password, and you can disconnect it whenever you want.

Moose only reports what Volvo tells it. It can tell whether Volvo accepted or refused the request, and it shows you how the most recent one went. It cannot confirm that the cabin actually began heating or cooling, because your car never reports that to anyone.

So Moose won't tell you "your car is warming up" when all it really knows is "Volvo accepted the request".

It also cannot turn the climate off again. Your car stops on its own after about thirty minutes. Running the climate uses your car's battery or fuel — that is your cost, and setting a time here is you asking for it.

Moose relies on the remote climate control that Volvo offers through its own connected services. Whether that is available depends on your car, your account, and what Volvo offers for it.

The honest answer is that you will find out when you connect — Moose can only see your cars once you've signed in with Volvo, and it will tell you then.

I own a Volvo. I wanted the car to be comfortable before we left, and one recurring climate schedule didn't fit real life. For everything else, I had to remember to open the Volvo app and start the climate myself. That was more faff than it should have been.

So I built Moose Climate. It's a personal project, completely independent of Volvo Cars. And it is free: no subscription, no trial, no card details, no adverts, no selling your data, and no analytics following you around the web.

Being a personal project rather than a company is also why it comes with no promises — see the terms, which are short and say what they mean.

Start with the routines you already know. Create as many climate schedules as you need, and let Moose handle the reminder.

It is free.

One-off departures and calendar support are planned, not built. Moose Climate is an independent project and is not made, approved or endorsed by Volvo Cars.