Technology

Idk who needs to hear it, but stop buying this shit. If it has a computer inside, but you can't flash your own software onto it, just pass. If you're unsure, look around, find the nearest Linux user and ask for help.

These fuckers disabled car mode in the android app to make you buy one of those and now they're killing it. I used car mode in my car and the moment it stopped working was when I cancelled my subscription.

Everybody buy your music. These streaming platforms are trash.

They should at least release data sheets and any bootloader signing keys, allowing people to reuse the devices for other purposes. If you could replace the firmware, I’m sure you could use it for controlling your home automation setup or displaying the weather/news/train times/other info (or possibly other tasks depending on what’s in the SoC). Now, alas, it’s just e-waste.

Even Google products have a longer lifespan 😖

I've since moved on to Tidal. Bought it at $30 when root mods started to be developed, but never really went anywhere.

Image alt:

• 2021-04-13: Interested in car thing
• 2022-10-18: order placed after discounted to $30
• 2022-10-21: shipped
• 2024-05-23: Discontinue notice
• 2024-12-09: Service discontinued

The bastards barely started selling it a few years ago. I feel like some responsibility should exist. It isn't a company that is going under, so it shouldn't be able to just casually kill the devices tied-service it only recently sold.

We need new laws y’all. All these companies should be forced to collect all their e-waste as part of their products lifecycle.

If a company produces any product and the company has a market cap over $1billion, then they should be responsible for collecting and recycling all their trash.

This was predictable. Everyone has a phone. Phones have CarPlay and Android Auto.

The fact that they named it “Car Thing” made it clear that it didn’t have much of a valid use and that they didn’t really have a lot of confidence in it.

It’s annoying that they even created it in the first place. It’s more annoying that they now predictably are not supporting it anymore. It should be illegal.

Stop feeding these parasites.

Either buy physical or self host!

Remember kids, never place buttons for a service on a remote if you don't know if the remote will last longer than said service :)

I bought this for my old Cadillac that only had a tape deck and it was amazing (with a Bluetooth cassette). I haven't used it since I got rid of that old Cadillac about two years ago now. Pretty limited use case but it still sucks to kill shit for no reason.

I'm waiting for some FOSS developers to hack this thing and run custom firmware on it. Or someone who creates their own "Car Thing" using an Arduino or Raspberry Pi.

imo they should refund everyone who bought one and collect all the devices to recycle.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Customers who bought the Car Thing are receiving emails warning that it will stop working altogether as of December 9th.

Unfortunately for those owners, Spotify isn’t offering any kind of subscription credit or automatic refund for the device — nor is the company open-sourcing it.

“We’re discontinuing Car Thing as part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our product offerings,” Spotify wrote in an FAQ on its website.

“We understand it may be disappointing, but this decision allows us to focus on developing new features and enhancements that will ultimately provide a better experience to all Spotify users.”

The company is recommending that customers do a factory reset on the product and find some way of responsibly recycling the hardware.

Car Thing was initially made available on an invite-only basis in April 2021, with Spotify later opening a public waitlist to buy the accessory later that year.

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