The Spotify Car Thing – a neat little piece of hardware that placed the Spotify UI on the car dashboard for vehicles without Android Auto and CarPlay – is being discontinued.
The $90 device, which only officially launched in 2022 for drivers in the United States, could be fitted to any car and included a touchscreen display and a large dial/button for moving through software.
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It also offered “Hey Spotify” voice commands as well as the ability to answer calls was a nice alternative to the expensive after-market systems for integrating CarPlay and Android Auto.
Now, after a decent period of being unavailable, Spotify will halt support for the device it never really intended to graduate beyond the exploratory stage. At the time, the company said it was intended to help it understand how people interacted with the music app behind the wheel.
Spotify said the decision has been made to streamline the product offerings. Unfortunately, after December 9 the device won’t be operational and Spotify is advising people to restore it to the factor settings and then dispose safely. There’s no plans for a replacement and no option to trade the device in.
In a statement published on Spotify’s support site the company said: “We have made the decision to discontinue Car Thing. This means that Car Thing will no longer be operational. This decision wasn’t made lightly, and we want to assure you that our commitment to providing a superior listening experience remains unchanged.
“We acknowledge and deeply appreciate the support and enthusiasm you have shown for Car Thing. It has been an incredible journey, and we are grateful for all the miles we’ve shared.”
This is somewhat of a crappy move from Spotify. The device is less than three years old and it would have been nice if Spotify had offered a trade-in for membership credit, or even a refund for this product that won’t have really sold that many.
