Smart radios for cars

Today we're announcing some new partnerships which will help strengthen radio's place in the cars of the future. Radio is crucial in cars, as shown by our recent research in the UK, France, and Germany.  Drivers want their radios to be easy to find, simple to operate, and smart enough to automatically play their favourite stations on the best available platform - whether that's DAB, FM, HD (in the US), or Online.

We've been working for years with the team at RadioDNS, to help grow the awareness and capabilities of 'hybrid radio'. We also work closely with Digital Radio UK, and WorldDAB - who are co-ordinating some useful cross-industry work looking at the 'user experience' of car radios. And, of course, we collaborate very closely with the countries which are now part of the Radioplayer Worldwide family.  

Last year, we launched a 'hybrid' car radio system of our own, called Radioplayer Car. It's designed to be fitted to older cars, converting their FM radios into 'smart radios'. It taught us a great deal about the kind of data that's required, to power the car radios of the future.

So we decided to take that experience, and create a 'smart radio' data feed that could be used by car firms and radio manufacturers. Out of the many companies we spoke to about collaborating on 'hybrid' radio development, there were 2 which really stood out. The team at Audi/VW became our launch partners for this project, along with the guys at DTS. We're very grateful to both companies - and to all the organisations we continue to collaborate with, as we work to secure radio's place in the dashboards of the future.

The full story is in the press release, which can be downloaded here.