If you are a Spotify user on your mobile and you have installed a headset compatible with audio services in your car, Surely you have used Car View on more than one occasion, the interface of the Spotify app that is activated automatically when it interprets that you are using it in a vehicle, perhaps as a driver. It only shows a very basic selection of information and touch controls, these large ones, which facilitate their control while driving and avoid distractions.
Car View has seemed to me, since I first saw it, a huge success from Spotify. And it is that yes, we all know the regulations, that we must not neglect the view of the traffic for a second and that we must not use the mobile, but we also all know that, in reality, many people do it, in the same way than to change the dial on the radio, adjust the temperature of the heating or air conditioning, and so on. And we all know that having a conversation on WhatsApp with your phone in hand is not the same as pressing a huge button on the screen with an arrow pointing to the right.
And this is why, because of how practical and intelligent this function seems to me, that what the company is doing seems outrageous to me. And, as we can read in Android Policy, Spotify is removing Car View from its iOS and Android apps. Yes, a function that provides a much safer way to use the app while driving has already disappeared from the apps of many drivers, according to reports.
And why is Spotify killing Car View? According to company spokespersons, they are working on the search for better systems, more comfortable for users and, well, they say that to make room for these news, they first have to eliminate Car View. An explanation that makes more waters than the Titanic after its unfortunate encounter with the iceberg, frankly, and even more so when we consider that those new and sensational systems have not replaced Car View. Or they hardly have, but this is even worse.
Car View is a feature that provides safety behind the wheel, something that does not seem trivial, right? Thus, if Spotify wants to replace Car View with something better, the logical thing would be to have that “something better” ready and, when the time comes, swap Car View for “something better”, without neglecting the safety of users at the time of change between one and another function. Surely the airbags can be improved, but it does not occur to anyone to eliminate them without having that improved alternative ready.
Spotify Car Thing
Remember how I said that there is actually almost a replacement for Car View already? As well, that alternative is called Car Thing, at the moment it is only available in preserve in the United States, it will cost $ 79.99 and, as you can see in the image above, it is a player with a touch control and a voice assistant that answers the call “Hey Spotify”. All with an interface designed, according to Spotify, to provide quick access to our favorite content.
So … what conclusion can we reach? Would it be ugly to think that Spotify has killed Car View without providing any alternative so that more users are encouraged to buy a Car Thing? I want to think that the company will look for a way to bring the functions of this device also to its smartphone apps, but for now, the harsh reality is that many drivers have been left without a function that allowed them to use the service safely, and that the The only option (and at the moment only in pre-purchase) is to acquire another device.
And not like that, Spotify, not like that. I understand that companies must seek new ways of monetization, of course they do, and I think it is sensational that they act in this regard. Now, just as I think that all engine manufacturers should include all active and passive safety systems in the base versions of their vehicles, I find it outrageous that Spotify suddenly puts a price on security (because at the moment that is what it is doing), even more so if we take into account that, with Car View, it was a pioneer in the safe use of the smartphone at the wheel.
Perhaps, if instead of dedicating themselves to trying to copy social networks, as they did with the stupidity of Stories and more recently with vertical videos, they concentrated all their efforts on developing and implementing those safer alternatives before eliminating Car View, I could think a little better about the company. But, I’m so sorry, this time Spotify is acting in a tremendously questionable way, and should recognize it and back off immediately.
