Vivaldi Comes to Android Automotive

Vivaldi announced that it is the first company to bring its web browser to Android Automotive, in this case via the Polestar 2 electric car.

“Vivaldi just became the first browser on Android Automotive OS—and one of the first full-featured browsers available in cars—breaking new ground and dropping an early Christmas present to drivers around the world,” Vivaldi CEO Jon von Tetzchner writes in the announcement post. “Whether it’s at home, at the office, or on the go, our aim is to deliver a unique, customizable, and privacy-friendly browser experience to people wherever they might be.”

For those unfamiliar, Android Automotive is Google’s embedded Android version for cars and other vehicles. It extends the base Android OS with automotive-specific functionality, especially infotainment, and it comes pre-installed with infotainment-related Android applications and can be extended with second- and third-party Android applications as required by the vehicle maker. By comparison, the more familiar Android Auto is designed for Android phone users, while Android Automotive is used by carmakers and doesn’t require anything from the user.

As for Polestar, that’s a Volvo brand and it currently makes high-end, high-performance electric vehicles (EVs). The Polestar 2 is its most recent offering.

“Today, we are proud to introduce Vivaldi to a car for the first time and specifically with a brand like Polestar,” von Tetzchner continues. “Our technological and sustainability ambitions are well aligned. We value transparency, privacy, and responsible innovation (including the fact that we have our servers in Iceland, one of Polestar’s newest markets). And, like Polestar, we are a challenger brand taking a Scandinavian approach to design—one based on trust and listening to users.”