Spotify wants you to dump its failed Car Thing gadget in the trash

Summary

Spotify is officially killing its failed Car Thing gadget later this year.
The company has instructed current owners to dispose of their devices ahead of its December 9th shutdown date.
Car Thing never made much sense as a standalone piece of hardware, which likely led to low interest two years ago.

As much as Google might hope you rely on its smartphone-powered car-friendly UI to safely interact with Android while driving, not everyone has a vehicle that supports Android Auto out of the box. That seemed to be the intention behind Spotify’s Car Thing, its first — and, so far, last — attempt to develop dedicated hardware for streaming your music library while on the road. After quickly discontinuing the product in 2022, Spotify now says existing units will stop working by the end of this year, and suggests current owners should quite literally throw them in the garbage.

As reported by 9to5Google — with a h/t to former Android Police editor Ryne Hager, no less — those who purchased Car Thing units during the short timespan where it was possible to do so are being told of its impending doom via email. Spotify’s email points to December 9th, 2024 as the end date for its hardware, while its related support page goes one step further, suggesting users factory reset the device before taking it to a local waste facility “in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.”

In other words, Spotify wants Car Thing owners to, quite literally, throw the device away. Frankly, it’s a bummer to see a command to, effectively, create more e-waste put into such plain English by such a large brand. It’s equally frustrating to see a company as large as Spotify put the onus of proper disposal on its subscribers, rather than providing a way for owners to ship the device to Spotify directly for recycling.

Car Thing never found its, you know, thing

In his review on this very website, Ryne praised both the design and the UI of Car Thing, but panned the overall package Spotify provided to customers. This was, effectively, a GPS-shaped piece of hardware that only provided drivers with access to their music library via a wireless connection to their phone. Anyone who needed navigation or the ability to send messages with voice commands would have to rely on the very smartphone that, again, is already tethered into Spotify’s display. Factor in the app’s perfectly serviceable (if not very visually compelling) Car Mode, and you end up with a $90 device that simply didn’t justify its existence.

It’s hard to imagine Spotify moved many Car Thing units throughout its lifespan; I’d guess that the majority of them were sold during its inevitable fire sale to gadget nerds looking for a piece of history. If you do happen to own one that’s still used on a regular basis, though, it might be time to look for a new way to display Spotify’s playback controls in your car. Just don’t go looking to Google for help — the days of car-friendly UIs running right on your phone are long gone.