Spotify's dedicated in-car controller, Car Thing, is about to become No Thing – or Bricked Thing, if you prefer. Spotify's short-lived hardware adventures ended in 2022 when the popular music streaming platform stopped making the Car Thing, and it's now emailing buyers to tell them that their devices will stop working altogether on December 9. "We understand it may be disappointing," Spotify says – and it seems that's quite the understatement.
While Spotify is effectively telling you to throw your Car Thing in the trash (after factory resetting it and finding an e-waste recycling place to take it), there are growing calls for it to be open sourced so that volunteers can continue to support it. Unhappy owners are taking to both Reddit and Spotify Community to voice their concerns and annoyance, but so far it seems that their pleas are falling on deaf ears.
