Mercedes Is Bringing Dolby Atmos Audiobooks And Podcasts To Its Cars
Get ready for your favorite podcast host to chat with you from the passenger seat or the latest audiobook to fill the cabin with a surround soundscape, with Mercedes-Benz announcing support for Dolby Atmos spatial audio for recordings from Audible and Amazon Music. The announcement at CES 2024 skips the usual cool-but-hardly-necessary gadgetry of the annual tech show, focusing instead on one of the most common diversions drivers enjoy: audiobook playback.
Dolby Atmos support is already a feature of select Mercedes-Benz vehicles, bringing spatial sound into the cabin (albeit usually demanding an optional audio system upgrade first) through providers like Apple Music. Vehicles with the Burmester 4D and 3D Surround System — available on Mercedes vehicles with the newest generation of MBUX infotainment — will be eligible for the spatial audio audiobook update first.
Native apps for Audible and Amazon Music running on MBUX will support Dolby Atmos versions of not only music but also audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts (assuming such a version exists). The result, Mercedes says, will be podcasts and audiobook narration that feel like they're actually in the vehicle with you.
Lots of tech, not much to listen to (at first)
You'll need a subscription to those apps in order to access them, of course, and to begin with, the selection of titles that actually support Dolby Atmos playback will be relatively small. Audible claims it currently has over 850,000 podcasts, audiobooks, and Audible Originals in its catalog, but of those, "dozens" are offered as a spatial audio version.
That does include "The Sandman Act III," along with "David Copperfield," and soundscapes like "The Healing Power of Nature." Still, if there's a particular audiobook series you're interested in, it's probably worth checking first to see if an Atmos version is provided. There'll be a Dolby Atmos logo on compatible media.
An over-the-air (OTA) update is scheduled to add the new functionality to Mercedes vehicles globally, from Q3 2024. That'll initially be for the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class, CLE Coupe, and CLE Cabriolet (all of which have the 3rd generation of MBUX). Amazon Music support for Dolby Atmos in the MBUX app began rolling out in December 2023, again starting with select models. Beyond that, broader audiobook Atmos support is expected further down the line.