A hot potato: Spotify’s Car Thing, a mini infotainment system designed to facilitate streaming in older vehicles, was an ambitious project that happened to arrive at the worst possible time. It’s since been stamped with an expiration date and some owners are up in arms.
The company started testing the gadget in 2019 to learn more about in-car listening habits, but then the pandemic hit and upended everything. Suddenly, daily commutes to work were no longer a thing for many. Spotify pressed on, expanding the trial to a small group of Premium subscribers before making it available to all in early 2022. Later that year, Spotify quietly discontinued the streaming accessory, citing weak demand and supply chain issues.
Spotify continued to sell the device on its website, albeit at a deep discount, and it kept working as usual. But that won’t be the case for much longer.
In a newly published support document, Spotify said it is discontinuing the Car Things program as part of an ongoing effort to streamline its product offerings. After December 9, 2024, the device will no longer be operational. Owners are encouraged to reset the device to factory settings and safely dispose of it following local electronic waste guidelines.
Spotify said that as of now, there are no plans to offer a replacement or new version of Car Thing. Worse yet, the company is not offering any trade-in options or subscriber credit, leaving buyers empty-handed.
In a last ditch effort to save the device from unnecessarily ending up in landfills, some owners are pleading for Spotify to release an SDK for it. As we have seen, the gadget doesn’t have to be limited to vehicle use. With the right tools, the community could do wonderful things with hardware like this.
The SDK for Car Things post on Spotify’s forum has already generated more than 1,200 votes, and several commenters have threatened to move to Apple Music or another rival service if the matter is not resolved to their liking.