Audi is integrating YouTube, the world’s largest video platform, into selected models’ infotainment systems. By embedding a new app store, customers can intuitively access popular third-party apps through the Multimedia Interface (MMI) via a data link in the vehicle.
The YouTube app is now available in the app store for the first time. Video streaming will launch in selected Audi models in the summer of 2023, with other VW Group brands to follow.
From this month, drivers of selected Audi models can access their chosen content via the YouTube app in their vehicle’s infotainment system. This access is made possible by embedding the new app store, which Audi developed with Volkswagen’s software company CARIAD and its partner HARMAN Ignite. It allows customers to integrate the apps they use every day into their vehicles according to their personal needs. Enabled apps include music, video, gaming, navigation, parking and charging, productivity, weather, and news. Apps such as YouTube are installed directly in Audi’s MMI system – without taking a detour via a smartphone.
YouTube will be available starting with the 2024 model year in selected models equipped with the latest hardware and software cluster of the third-generation modular infotainment system (MIB 3). Specifically, these are the Audi A4/A5, Q5, A6/A7, A8, Q8 e-tron, and Audi e-tron GT quattro. From the launch date, these models will be optionally equipped with the store ex-factory throughout the European market, Canada, and the United States. The system will later be rolled out to other regions and other Volkswagen Group brands.