Spotify tests a smart assistant that adapts to your car

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• Spotify tests a smart assistant that adapts to your car

Rumors surrounding a Spotify speaker for your car have been swirling for a while and now it's official: Spotify has confirmed that it's testing a new hardware device that's a perfect fit for your Car, designed to assess "how the people listen" on the go. Since it's still in the testing phase, you can't buy the speaker, called Car Thing, at the moment, but it will be distributed to a limited number of Premium subscribers in the United States. Details about what Car Thing actually does beyond collecting data for Spotify are a bit thin on the ground. All Spotify says is that it's "a voice-activated music and podcast device." In fact, it might never go on sale: Spotify claims it's determined to become "the number one audio platform in the world" rather than making hardware devices.

Voice and welcome

Even if the hardware isn't an integral part of Spotify's business, future devices could include a voice solution and a personal feature, Spotify says. We guess the latter might look a bit like the Google Home Mini. "Americans spend 70 billion hours driving each year," says Spotify. "That's a lot of time on the road, so what you do, and what you listen to, to help you get through those long hours is important." "That's why Spotify is trying to deepen its understanding of people's listening habits and preferences, to create an unparalleled experience for our users." Testing begins in the coming weeks, according to The Verge. When the device leaks into cars, we might start to learn more about what it can actually do.