Official line
Spotify discontinued Car Thing and deactivated remaining devices on December 9, 2024.
Spotify · Hardware · Product
Car Thing
Discontinued
2021–2024 · 3 years in market
Launched
Apr 13, 2021
Discontinued
Dec 9, 2024
Cause of death
Hardware miss
Evidence
Unsourced
What was it?
A $90 in-car streamer Spotify sold, then bricked. Production stopped in 2022; devices died on December 9, 2024.
Why it died
Editorial reading
CarPlay and Android Auto are the car. A third screen that can be remotely disabled is a support liability, not a platform.
Founder takeaway
Do not ship hardware you are willing to brick. If it is an experiment, say so at checkout — and take it back.
Sources
Unsourced — editorial reading
No primary source is attached yet. Treat the interpretation as editorial, not a citation.
What replaced it
Apple / Google
CarPlay / Android Auto
The car screen that actually stuck.
Related graves
Same company, category, or cause of death.
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Social/Low usage+30
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Hardware/Hardware miss+38