Volvo To Integrate Spotify In Its Vehicles

Spotify's integration in Volvo vehicles is "imminent," according to the company's VP of Electronic Systems Engineering. This will be Spotify's first foray into the automotive world, and will be made available via Ericsson's Connected Vehicle Cloud platform. This comes shortly after the news that Spotify is now available as a channel on most Roku set top boxes.

Ericsson's Connected Vehicle Cloud offers the Spotify integration, among other things, and is designed to serve as a means to connect to those services. For now at least, the system will utilize the driver's data connection via their smartphone. Another option will be the ability to use a secondary SIM card on the driver's data plan.

Although the current focus is Volvo, Ericsson stated that it will also be pushing the service out to other automakers. "We are going to try and work with different industry players," says Ericsson's Consulting and Systems Integration head Paolo Colella. "We will try to spread the use of these applications to other automakers and in other areas."

This is in addition to Volvo's widely available On Call system, which includes a mobile app that allows car owners to control their vehicles – portions of it, anyway – via their mobile device. The service requires payment for its own data connection, however, a limiting factor in Volvo's desire to provide services like, for example, Spotify. That is why, at least for now, Ericsson's Connected Vehicle Cloud utilizes the driver's already existing data plan via his or her smartphone.

[via Wired]