Spotify kills the Car Thing
Another example of a company needlessly turning a unique product into e-waste
Did you know that Spotify created a physical product just a few short years ago? Yeah, it was called Car Thing and I just so happened to purchase one.
I love any company that has the gumption to use the word "thing" in a product name. But that's essentially what this product was. It was a thing that allowed you to play Spotify in your car without touching your phone or a built-in Spotify app installed on your car.
Was it anything revolutionary? No, not really. It was a very basic little device but it served its purpose. It let you navigate around Spotify's ecosystem pretty intuitively. I initially wrote about the thing back in March of 2022. At the time, I was lukewarm on its practicality but I did end up buying one and both my wife and I enjoyed the user experience for the most part.
The point of this story isn't really to examine the quality or utility of the Car Thing. While I did love its size and retro "Zune-like" appearance, it wasn't destined to be a major hit for Spotify. It was an experiment in product development that evidently failed.
Spotify stopped new production of the Car Thing shortly after it launched publicly in 2022. And just this week they made a more alarming announcement. All Car Things would turn into useless paperweights by the end of the year. And no, they weren't going to offer any coupons, free subscription months, or even recycling options for owners of the devices.
Spotify just told Car Thing owners to dispose of the items "safely." Hmm, there is a whole rant here about responsible management of e-waste but I'll try to stay on course about how this is mostly a poor customer service issue.
No, I don't think the Car Thing is an amazing product. It has gone through periods over the past two years where it was proudly displayed on my car dashboard and then there were longer periods where it was buried in the glove compartment or center console. It wasn't necessarily good enough to be used every time I was in the car. There were times when it wouldn’t connect properly or it refused to understand my voice when I told it to play my daughter’s favorite Trolls album for the 8,563rd time in a row.
However, I still enjoyed playing with it from time to time when I needed a break from my phone or wanted to experience a different way to navigate Spotify. It served its purpose. And it was solely my decision on whether or not I wanted to use it that day.
Now Spotify is making that decision for all of us. It doesn't sound like they have any plans for a Car Thing 2 (Electric Boogaloo?). Nor does it seem like they're going to attempt any further physical products after the downfall of the Thing.
![So, what are you using as a Nest Secure replacement? [Poll]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe4b7592-c278-4d92-91df-a3606d722d7d_1600x800.jpeg "So, what are you using as a Nest Secure replacement? [Poll]")
Does this scenario sound at all familiar? Personally, it reminds me of the move Google pulled this year when they discontinued their very popular Nest Secure home security system. Granted, they did give an even longer notice than Spotify did when killing the Thing. And Google did the somewhat honorable thing of giving customers a $200 credit to their store (that frustratingly couldn’t be used on any sale item or combined with any other credit or deal). It didn't really take away the sting of killing off a product, but it was better than what Spotify did.
The issue that I have with these product death sentences is that they could very well continue living a second life if the companies allowed them to. For example, Google could have cut the 24/7 monitoring features or new app development for their security system. But they could have let the device keep working otherwise. Intrepid open source folks could have run with the code and kept the product alive if they so chose. Instead, Google went out of there way to kill a product that still had life and rushed it to the landfill when it didn't need to go there yet. In the case of the Car Thing, I even noticed some resourceful folks creating tripods and clever mounting solutions to turn the Car Thing into a Desktop Thing or a Thing to play spotify wherever you need it!
Yes, I understand that companies have server costs and salaries to pay. It doesn't necessarily make sense financially to allow certain products to wither and die of natural causes. A swift execution can pave the way for replacement products and new users. Although it feels like companies like Google and Spotify just underestimate how shitty it feels to get those emails telling you that something you bought with hard-earned money is about to break for no good reason.
Like I said, I haven't even been a hardcore user of the Car Thing. I likely wouldn't have even noticed if they took some of the features offline. And if they told me the Car Thing was dying but were giving me a free three months of Spotify service or something, I could have tolerated that. Hell, even if they said the product was dying and I was getting nothing, at least give me a label to ship it back to you to be recycled. Instead, I need to find my own responsible way to dispose of this thing? Sure, I live in the Bay Area and know where my closest e-waste disposal site is, but how many other people will act on that knowledge? No, a majority of these things are needlessly going straight into the landfill.
These situations are becoming more and more common. Look around your desk right now. What other products will be killed off soon? We're not delusional. We all know that products break or come to the end of profitability for companies. They need to discontinue things. There just needs to be a better blueprint for how to do this in a way that is kinder to customers and better for the environment.
RIP Car Thing 2022-2024
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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