Vivaldi has announced that its increasingly-popular namesake web browser is now available exclusively in the Polestar 2, a car running Android Automotive OS (AAOS). Vivaldi said it’s one of the first full-featured browsers available in AAOS cars. Vivaldi has also thought about drivers becoming distracted and has built-in certain precautions to minimise accidents.
According to Vivaldi, a web browser has been a top request of Polestar drivers and when the automaker reached out to Vivaldi the latter jumped at the chance to put its browser in Polestar cars. The browser maker said that until now there has simply not been a full web browser in Android Automotive, likely due to the distraction concerns.
To make sure that drivers don’t mess about with their new web browser and endanger other drivers, the browser will only be able to be used when the vehicle is parked. If the driver starts up the car to begin a journey, audio content will continue to play but the rest of the browser will be restricted. On the security side of things, if you use the private browsing mode, the car does not store any of the data.
Commenting on the browser’s launch in the Polestar 2, Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO, said:
“We have listened to our owner community, and it’s great that we could answer their desire for a browser with Vivaldi as a nice Christmas present. Now there is basically no limit to the web content you can explore in Polestar 2 – even some of your favorite streaming platforms.”
While the Vivaldi browser should technically work on all cars with Android Automotive OS, the firm has so far only made its browser available on Polestar 2. Maybe in the new year, it will expand to other supported vehicles.