A new car smart assistant from Spotify starts testing phase

A voice-controlled smart assistant for cars will begin its public testing in a couple of weeks in the US. It marks as Spotify’s first hardware in the market that’s basically a voice-controlled smart assistant for cars. What the device does is help Spotify understand what people listen to while they drive; and so, some Premium users will get the testing hardware for free. In a blog post, Spotify wrote that it “is trying to learn more about people’s listening habits and preferences to help create an unparalleled experience for our users.”

Spotify calls it ‘Car Thing’ and fits into the cigarette lighter spot. The device is Bluetooth operated and connects with the car and the user’s phone. You can activate it by simply saying “Hey, Spotify” and ask it to play what you wish to hear. Since it is linked with your account, you can ask Spotify to play your playlist also.

Test Drive and Play

This voice-activated IoT device comes with a circular screen that indicates the song/podcast being played. The hardware also has a couple of buttons for the playlist. The blog post also said: “While we know there has been some speculation about our future plans, Car Thing was developed to help us learn more about how people listen to music and podcasts. Our focus remains on becoming the world’s number one audio platform—not on creating hardware.”