Tesla is navigating a fairly complex in-car music streaming situation and now Elon Musk is adding to it by hinting that Tesla cars in North America might get Spotify.
In Europe, Tesla owners have been enjoying a Spotify app directly integrated into Tesla’s system for years now.
However, in North America, Tesla has a deal with Slacker to provide music streaming services to the fleet.
Slacker has been the subject of criticisms by some Tesla owners and it’s unclear why Tesla hasn’t integrated Spotify for its entire fleet, but it has been rumored to be a contractual issue.
The service is relatively small and Tesla’s fleet integration actually represents an important part of the revenue of Slacker Radio’s parent company.
At one point, versions of Tesla’s Spotify app appeared in the code of North American vehicles on several occasions, but the feature was never made available to the US/Canadian fleet.
Now CEO Elon Musk hints that it might finally be coming to the US in a simple single word respond to integrating the music streaming app:
Ok
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 10, 2019
The CEO didn’t elaborate or offer a timeline on the possible release of Spotify in the North American fleet.
Back in 2017, Tesla even started working on its own music streaming service, but the project appears to have been put on the back burner.
Last month, Musk also mentioned that Tesla is working on a “fun, little music tool coming later” and a “tweak” to music inside Tesla vehicles.
Electrek’s Take
Personally, I actually don’t think Slacker is that bad and when I really want to use Spotify, I simply use my phone via Bluetooth.
However, I can see how having Spotify directly integrated into the Tesla software could be more convenient.
Due to several false hopes in the past on that front, I wouldn’t get ahead of myself here, but Elon’s comment is encouraging.
We will keep an eye out for any change to Tesla’s music app in software updates in the coming weeks.
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