Many cars can access Spotify through Android Auto, Apple CarPlay or built-in apps - Car Thing was mainly helpful for people with older vehicles who wanted a music streaming upgrade, but didn't want to mount their phone. Car Thing from Spotify is designed for your drive and fills your car with music, news, entertainment, talk, and more. It was effectively a Spotify player for cars that didn't have streaming functionality, and served as an informative experiment for the company. With Car Thing, Spotify aims to make life (streaming) easier and quicker for you, and the device forms part of a bigger plan to make its streaming more streamlined. Spotify first shared word of Car Thing in 2019, but the finished product only reached the broader public early this year following several months of invitation-only sales. You can still buy the Car Thing for $50 (down from the usual $90) as of this writing.
I havent had any lagging issues or any negative feedback so far. The car thing also makes using voice control much easier especially at higher volume. The company said it still "unlocked helpful learnings" from the device despite its brief history, and that the car remained an "important place" for audio. We have an 08 4runner and I use my phone for navigation and music so the car thing actually takes some of the fumbling around with my phone to change a playlist or something. The withdrawal hurt Spotify's gross profits.Įxisting Car Thing units will still work as expected, Spotify said. In a statement to Engadget, a company spokesperson pinned the decision on "several factors" that included customer demand and supply chain problems. As part of its earnings data, the streaming service revealed that it stopped manufacturing its Car Thing player. Spotify's less-than-stellar quarter can be partly blamed on a decision to exit the hardware business.