Ola partners with Apple Music, Sony LIV for its new 'Ola Play' connected car platform

At an event held today, Ola launched ‘Ola Play’, a connected car platform for ride sharing. The online taxi service claims that the platform will transform the in-car experience for users like never before. Ola Play comes powered by proprietary in-car and cloud technologies from the company that bring advance car controls, choice of personalised content and a fully connected interactive experience. The platform hardware has been built in partnership with Qualcomm. Once the ride begins, Ola Play will transfer the in-car experience to users from the Driver Console for a seamless interfacing. Customers will be able to enjoy the experience from their own devices or also opt for the large screen mounted in-car with surround sound systems. The system uses customer destination and other ride information to offer personalised recommendations during the ride. Ola will also join an exclusive selection of both International and local tastemakers as well as style leaders as an Apple Music curator in India. The ride-sharing platform will curate a range of themed playlists reflecting India’s diverse music genres and broader interests of Ola customers from over 102 cities. Speaking at the launch, Bhavish Aggarwal, co-Founder and CEO at Ola said, “I believe this will completely transform the consumer’s ride experience, giving the user the power to control the interactions within the car, and usher in a new era in the ride sharing industry. This will further propel ride-sharing as the first choice of mobility for many more millions.” Ola Play will also allow various partners like Apple Music, Sony LIV, Audio Compass and Fynd to build a high quality interactive experience. In fact, as a strategic partner, Mahindra and Mahindra is deeply integrating this technology in its vehicles. “As a young Indian company, we’re proud to be at the forefront of the Startup India movement. Ola Play is a world first, built in India by an Indian team, which showcases that we can do better than the best in the world, and be global leaders in technology and innovation," Aggarwal added. “Music lovers in India are enjoying Apple Music’s hand-picked playlists based on the music they love, hearing new music from artists like Drake and A.R. Rahman first before anyone else, and discovering new artists like Divine and Madboy Mink every day. We are thrilled to bring Apple Music to Ola Play,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s Vice President of International Content. Ola Play will be made available on Ola Prime in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi for select customers, and later rolled out across other cities and cover more than 50,000 vehicles by 2017.