Forgot what the Car Thing was? Here’s a refresher
Back in spring this year, Spotify officially showcased its first physical device. The Car Thing is a device that you use to control the Spotify app on your phone. It sits on your dashboard like a GPS device and can attach to it in multiple ways. The device communicates to your phone via Bluetooth and it draws its power from the 12V port in your car. The Car Thing doesn’t actually stream the content to your phone like a smart device; the music is coming from your phone. Think of the Car Thing as a physical remote control to navigate your app. It has a display on the front, but it’s not touch-sensitive. You navigate your music by using the button up top, and these are your basic Bluetooth speaker controls (Play/pause, skip track, power). There’s also a large wheel on the front of the device which you use to scroll the content. Also, you can use the “Hey Spotify” voice command. So, what is the point of this device again? Well, it’s to help you navigate your music safely while driving. It will hopefully eliminate the need to take your eyes off of the road. Instead of unlocking your phone, looking down at the app, and tapping what you want, you can simply use the physical buttons that you can navigate by feel. The Spotify Car Thing actually looks like a nice little device, but before you sign onto the waitlist, there are a few drawbacks to think about. Firstly, it doesn’t have its own power source; it relies on the power from the car, so the port will constantly be in use. Also, you can’t really navigate your library, only your playlists specifically.
The waitlist for the Spotify Car Thing is now open
If you go to the Spotify page, you’ll be able to see the Car Thing waitlist. You will, of course, need to have an active account to be put on the list. Once you are on the list, the device will cost you $79.99. Before you try to sign up, you need to know that this is only available to customers in the US at the moment. The company didn’t say when it will be made available to other countries. It seems that Spotify is doing a really slow release to play it safe.
