So, when I get in the car, Android auto connects OK. Occasionally, Spotify just starts playing... great. Most of the times I have to touch media, select source, phone....the I get music.

Sometimes when I get out of the car, Spotify is playing through my phones speakers.

There must be a fix for this as its totally random !! Or seems totally random !!

Any ideas are much appreciated, thanks

 

I think this may be a Bluetooth issue, too. From my observations this is what I think happens (could be I'm totally wrong):
For reasons beyond my comprehension, the designers of the Bluetooth interface thought it a good idea that when a Bluetooth connection gets established, the car's radio looks to see if the link is to the same device as last time. If it is, then it has the ability to start up whatever was running last on the Android phone - in this case Spotify. When you leave the car and the Bluetooth link gets dropped, Spotify keeps running (maybe "paused"). If it doesn't recognize another Bluetooth speaker/headphone/vehicle, it sometimes seems to default to the Android's speaker. So if the last Bluetooth connection your car saw was to your Android running Spotify, then that's what will start up automatically.
I have the exact same issue with listening to pre-recorded books using Libby, but it's really annoying. I only want to restart the book when we're off on a long drive, not when going to the shops. The only solution I found is to disable Bluetooth on my phone and use the USB connector. Then the car's radio doesn't "see" my phone till I plug it in. If any Android guru can figure out a better solution, I'm all ears!

 

yeah.....ok.....you might be right

I tried the cable connection, worked ok, got in next time with Bluetooth, connected no problem, next time, no connection ...its quite puzzling

 

enabling the SIM card in the vehicle has (for some strange reason) totally fixed this.