I didn't know this was even a product.. but now I want to go buy one for when the class action suit inevitably happens.. I don't understand how they can legally do this.
Yeah, you know that "terms of service" section that you blindly agree to automatically? That's how they can do this legally, and why smart people simply don't buy products that require perpetual uninterrupted support from the manufacturer.
Yeah but it's just stupid their creating so much e waste by bricking the device they could just make it open source. Also it's almost impossible to jailbreak
@@Mlgbro02the product was a flop there is barely any units, also it is probably cheaper for them to just compensate anyone who asks for it then to keep supporting it
Fun Fact: The device dosent even need to connect to spotify servers to work, all they are doing is updating the app to artificially stop it from working
@@slapshotjack9806 you just said it yourself, the phone connects to the servers. So this thing is basically just like a bt adapter (but assume via a hotspot?). No need to shut it down. Software is on the device and there is no logic reason to quit this.
No, it doesn't @@slapshotjack9806. That's just connecting to your phone. Your phone can still access Spotify easily, it just won't let you stream the data to this particular device anymore. It's not extra load for Spotify, they really have no reason to brick the devices.
Deliberately making ewaste should be illegal. And not punishable by a fine they can brush off as the cost of doing business, a real hit to their bottom line.
Business's try new things and often end up like this when they dont work / sell projected numbers. If you want innovation this is bound to come with it
They should just open the device so people can make use of this at least. Just remote update the app to remove Spotify proprietary software and just make it a basic music control interface and open source it
I mean, sure, but a lot of companies would hate the U.S goverment or any other countries goverment if they done this. Cons: Financial burden on companies, Extended support costs = Less quality to ensure they make a profit, et cetera. All cons are basically on the companies sides bla bla bla
@@nopeyeser6914so? If the government never established laws for companies ever, do you think they would morally do the right things? No. This is good. It’s Spotify they’ll find another way to make money and move on.
@@nopeyeser6914 Not saying they have to support it. There is a huge difference in just leaving something alone and purposely disabling the functionality.
I hope we get a jailbreak soon. Honestly I use the device every time I drive since my car is a bit older and only has a radio with bluetooth. Id really only be interested in being able to continue using the device
Car thing was literally the only reason I stayed on Spotify Platform. I'm using it to display artwork and control volume for back seat passengers on my ride-sharing car. Can't believe it. There is no other device like this on the market. I missed the boat initially and it was discontinued before it even got to UK market. My partner paid £200 for a brand new and boxed on ebay because she knew I really wanted one, and wanted to make me happy. This really sucks
@@tysonchickennuggets Annoying enough that it costs them more money not refunding you A good example of this is when I threatened to hold an Amazon service person until I got my refund, I said I'm not leaving till I got it, no matter how many hours it takes I got my Amazon refund in 5 minutes (I already sent the product back and was waiting for them to process it, they said they'll process it in a month but it was already 2+ months at this point)
@tysonchickennuggets I was on the customer support page and the bot redirected me to a person after I typed "spotify car thing compensation" 3 times. I asked the person if there would be a new product that we would get a discount for or if we would get refunds and they processed my refund. Whole thing took about 2 minutes from going to a bot to getting a refund
@@donjon8413 Took me 2 times in the chat bot. You have to supply them with a receipt or bank statement. (They have a part of it on file). I bought 2 at $30 / piece and they credited me 6 months.
@@Zeroneii3please don't do that, that agent is still a person, look for corporate information and send them emails or call their offices, that poor worker is probably losing part of their bonus just because you want your refund.
Every company should be required to open up their hardware Google made an updated that could convert stadia controllers over to Bluetooth How hard would it be for them to add an unlock mode to it
It was already bluetooth. They locked it down to make it useless otherwise. Should have been unlocked from day one. This is a portion of why stadia died...
I use car thing in my car. I have an older car, so I don’t even have an infotainment screen in my car. This device is a life saver for me, and it sucks to know that I’m now gonna have to cough up a bunch of money to replace the radio in my car with a giant screen.
you can literally just run waze, it has spotify interface in the app. if you're talking about having your car playing your music/connecting to your phone, literally just get a bluetooth fm transmitter that you plug in your 12V socket. it can connect to your phone and you can select a radio frequency, and if you turn on your radio and select the same radio frequency it will play your music. i have a 2009 vw with a basic radio and i just use this, i had a 2023 hyundai for a week last month with wireless android auto (i drove about 1,600 km with it) and to be honest over the week i had the car, i didn't see much of an improvement using android auto over the setup i have with my phone in my vw, so buying a giant screen to replace your normal radio makes no sense. literally the only two things you need to buy are a cell phone holder and an fm transmitter, that's it. you can find an fm transmitter pretty much anywhere for fairly cheap, like 20-25$, and cell phone holders are probably like 10-15$. even with expensive options i don't see how you could go over 50$.
@@oliviersavard8676 I could do that for the mean time, but I would like to get a radio replacement at some point. My phone stays in my pocket, so it would be nice to have a way to do things on my phone without having to pull it out of my pocket every time I get in my car.
Never knew they even existed. I use a cheap Bluetooth dongle with media controls thats tacked on my dash and gets power from USB and connects to my audio jack Spotify shows at the bottom of my Google Maps and I can still see my Maps GPS very clearly
@@oliviersavard8676Google maps has better routing def. I personally run google maps with an app called highway radar which can be configured to display the police data from waze.
I just contacted Spotify, showed proof of purchase via bank charge, and I got 5 months of premium refunded. I paid about $32 for car thing and I pay about $6 and some change for premium student. So it worked out perfectly, thank you for the info!!
The simplicity in a complex device is so appealing I hate the fact I couldn’t own it and only found out bout the news when it discontinued… so sad…. But they can STILL save it🤦♂️
Good video and it is great to see that the community holds the Spotify accountable for doing such thing. Dear Spotify, don't expect me to renew your Spotify premium again after you just erased a product that people spent 80$ on and have nothing to make use of
Ok are there any tech people out there that can come up with some sort of software to run on this? I love how easy it is to use and the functionality is great. I wouldn't mind it just being a music player/gps screen mirror from a phone through some programming. I mean if it's possible. I'd hate to just not use it anymore.
It's just a computer with Linux and 500 mb of ram. There are available custom ROMs to flash that thing, with a little bit of additional hardware, but then you can do everything you want
The marketing for this product was TERRIBLE. I remember seeing it advertised once...ONCE...since it was released and then I never heard anything about it again afterwards. I'm tempted to buy one to join the class action 👍
how did i never hear of these, i wish i had one when i got my first car with it being older and everything, that really sucks they’re getting rid of it though.
Yeah, that sucks because for me I drive an old-school car so I need to plug something in to my stereo/radio if I do want to use it. Just plugging in my phone is good and all, but I don’t wanna be having to look at my phone or holding my phone, especially when I’m driving my car that’s a stick shift.
@@oliviersavard8676 yeah I tried cell phone holders and literally none of them worked I always have to either have it in my pocket or have it in that little cubby in my center consul. i’m pretty sure that’s it’s due to the fact my phone is too big and heavy. Also sometimes when I’m driving to go somewhere I don’t bring my phone because I have a watch.🤷
It can be a stupid product for the more newer cars and people. But the way that they will discontinue it is very s*ty. They didnt consider the people who just DONT have android auto or something similar.
Open source would be such a great save for the product and company reputation, although with minimal efforts expected from Spotify itself as it won’t give them Much extra revenue
Best thing is that they could just keep the API that powers the car thing online so it would still work. I don't believe they are making such huge changes (if any at all besides just blocking out the car thing) that would render the car thing unusable
One nice thing is people clueless on how to flash then will sell them for next to nothing thinking they're paper weights after watching all the shorts/tik toks saying they're worthless.
And this is why im just ignoring existence of Spotify and using my smartphone with split-screen for Google maps and YT Music. Just making GMaps bigger and RUclips Music smaller enough to control it. That's why i love Android OS, it's so flexible, i also can drop a flooting widget to control audio and stuff.
I'm not a Spotify user and I don't own this. However, it looks so slim, I wish they open up the FW, so I can use it at my PC. Using the Knop for volume control and the display for addition information of my hardware. Even beyond that. I know there are custom FW and similar devices, but it's a shame to “destroy” working hardware. Me as a microcontroller programmer, I would find new use cases for it.
Anyone else own Car Thing?
yes and still use it
@@ptterodactyl5597 I hope we get a “jailbreak” soon!
@driggsy if we dont after its bricked chances are it wont work so whoevers making it needs to hurry
Same but the good thing it's android
@@driggsyknowing the community itll likely happen
I didn't know this was even a product.. but now I want to go buy one for when the class action suit inevitably happens.. I don't understand how they can legally do this.
Yeah, you know that "terms of service" section that you blindly agree to automatically? That's how they can do this legally, and why smart people simply don't buy products that require perpetual uninterrupted support from the manufacturer.
@@AtlasReburdened i mean sure, but that does that apply when you buy ANYTHING EVER AT ANY STORE?
Yeah but it's just stupid their creating so much e waste by bricking the device they could just make it open source. Also it's almost impossible to jailbreak
@@Mlgbro02the product was a flop there is barely any units, also it is probably cheaper for them to just compensate anyone who asks for it then to keep supporting it
@@AtlasReburdenedyea but you can write that you own the first born daughter of all who accept but that does not make it legal
Fun Fact: The device dosent even need to connect to spotify servers to work, all they are doing is updating the app to artificially stop it from working
That is just plain evil at this point
@@slapshotjack9806 you just said it yourself, the phone connects to the servers. So this thing is basically just like a bt adapter (but assume via a hotspot?). No need to shut it down. Software is on the device and there is no logic reason to quit this.
@@slapshotjack9806yeah but that would be like Netflix disabling your TV because your Roku is connected to it.
No, it doesn't @@slapshotjack9806. That's just connecting to your phone. Your phone can still access Spotify easily, it just won't let you stream the data to this particular device anymore. It's not extra load for Spotify, they really have no reason to brick the devices.
@@slapshotjack9806 ... in that case, it's your phone that's getting the data from the servers and the Car Thing is a fancy (very useful) remote.
Deliberately making ewaste should be illegal.
And not punishable by a fine they can brush off as the cost of doing business, a real hit to their bottom line.
Agreed 👏🏼
shake that bottom line
Business's try new things and often end up like this when they dont work / sell projected numbers. If you want innovation this is bound to come with it
@@Teddu-but they could have just dropped support by not giving anymore updates instead of sending out a update that will break all of the devices
@@Korixon. u right u right
Ending support would’ve been alright, but completely bricking it seems a bit much
If you ever think "that's awful!! That big company would never do that!" Just remember, they can and they will.
@@slapshotjack9806it is going to be bricked, rendered useless, shut down and never be usable again
"After December 9th, 2024, Car Thing will be discontinued and *will no longer be operational.* " @@slapshotjack9806
They should just open the device so people can make use of this at least. Just remote update the app to remove Spotify proprietary software and just make it a basic music control interface and open source it
@@exceptionalanimations1508 ok captain obvious
Tech companies really be turning to shit
Spotify is not a tech company
@@braviasony2270 they all are turning shit.
it's still a shit company
Software company*
@@gullible119 turd factory
We gotta run doom on this thing.
people are running
There should be a law made that no product can ever be officially rendered non functional
I agree 💯
I mean, sure, but a lot of companies would hate the U.S goverment or any other countries goverment if they done this.
Cons:
Financial burden on companies,
Extended support costs = Less quality to ensure they make a profit, et cetera.
All cons are basically on the companies sides bla bla bla
@@nopeyeser6914so? If the government never established laws for companies ever, do you think they would morally do the right things? No. This is good. It’s Spotify they’ll find another way to make money and move on.
You agreed they can do this when you buy it
@@nopeyeser6914 Not saying they have to support it. There is a huge difference in just leaving something alone and purposely disabling the functionality.
I hope we get a jailbreak soon. Honestly I use the device every time I drive since my car is a bit older and only has a radio with bluetooth. Id really only be interested in being able to continue using the device
Same, I’m genuinely hoping the same. I’ll be creating a follow up video if a stable, easy, and useful jailbreak is released.
we already do!
ruclips.net/video/KbcO8K9Huz0/видео.htmlsi=s_kJQosE7LgXd55o
I think some people got a Linux distro working on it so if you know what you’re doing and are willing to tinker there is probably a way to salvage it
We already have the tutorial, I think I even could try to say how to install android apps
I would love a jailbreak for it. I'll miss it when it dies
The device itself is just cool. People would literally buy the car thing without any firmware to load up whatever they wanted. Its very cool
Even google unlocked the stadia controller 😂
Car thing was literally the only reason I stayed on Spotify Platform. I'm using it to display artwork and control volume for back seat passengers on my ride-sharing car. Can't believe it. There is no other device like this on the market. I missed the boat initially and it was discontinued before it even got to UK market. My partner paid £200 for a brand new and boxed on ebay because she knew I really wanted one, and wanted to make me happy. This really sucks
If you complain enough you can get a full cash refund. Got mine last week.
Really. How annoying did u got to be
@@tysonchickennuggets Annoying enough that it costs them more money not refunding you
A good example of this is when I threatened to hold an Amazon service person until I got my refund, I said I'm not leaving till I got it, no matter how many hours it takes
I got my Amazon refund in 5 minutes
(I already sent the product back and was waiting for them to process it, they said they'll process it in a month but it was already 2+ months at this point)
@tysonchickennuggets I was on the customer support page and the bot redirected me to a person after I typed "spotify car thing compensation" 3 times. I asked the person if there would be a new product that we would get a discount for or if we would get refunds and they processed my refund. Whole thing took about 2 minutes from going to a bot to getting a refund
@@donjon8413 Took me 2 times in the chat bot. You have to supply them with a receipt or bank statement. (They have a part of it on file). I bought 2 at $30 / piece and they credited me 6 months.
@@Zeroneii3please don't do that, that agent is still a person, look for corporate information and send them emails or call their offices, that poor worker is probably losing part of their bonus just because you want your refund.
hopefully some smart people are able to like reverse engineer this thing or jailbreak it so it can still be used
already happened! Jailbreaks are possible and there’s an entire GitHub Repo community dedicated for this purpose 😊
It is open source
Every company should be required to open up their hardware
Google made an updated that could convert stadia controllers over to Bluetooth
How hard would it be for them to add an unlock mode to it
It was already bluetooth. They locked it down to make it useless otherwise. Should have been unlocked from day one.
This is a portion of why stadia died...
not that hard since it's already open source from what I could find :')
its already open source
its just ass at doing anything worthwhile
They literally had to do NOTHING to keep the Thing working after support (=providing updates and helping troubleshooting) ends!
I just learnt this existed and now it’s going away what???
its cool to have it in a desk set up not just for cars
It really is. If it interfaced directly with your PC it would be perfect
pretty great in older cars tbh
The same exact thing is going to happen to the PlayStation Portal some day
That would be sad 😭
It can't
"Unaliving" 💀
You can flash custom firmware to prevent it from being bricked
This is supposition or an affirmation? What is the name of the aftermarket firmware?
Been real quiet ever since 🤔
spill your secrets mane
@@thiagoehsupposition
@@thiagoeh ruclips.net/video/KbcO8K9Huz0/видео.htmlsi=IM3HhwEf6qMgzmnM
"You will own nothing and you will be happy".
I will not eat the bugs or live in a pod!
I use car thing in my car. I have an older car, so I don’t even have an infotainment screen in my car. This device is a life saver for me, and it sucks to know that I’m now gonna have to cough up a bunch of money to replace the radio in my car with a giant screen.
you can literally just run waze, it has spotify interface in the app. if you're talking about having your car playing your music/connecting to your phone, literally just get a bluetooth fm transmitter that you plug in your 12V socket. it can connect to your phone and you can select a radio frequency, and if you turn on your radio and select the same radio frequency it will play your music.
i have a 2009 vw with a basic radio and i just use this, i had a 2023 hyundai for a week last month with wireless android auto (i drove about 1,600 km with it) and to be honest over the week i had the car, i didn't see much of an improvement using android auto over the setup i have with my phone in my vw, so buying a giant screen to replace your normal radio makes no sense. literally the only two things you need to buy are a cell phone holder and an fm transmitter, that's it. you can find an fm transmitter pretty much anywhere for fairly cheap, like 20-25$, and cell phone holders are probably like 10-15$. even with expensive options i don't see how you could go over 50$.
@@oliviersavard8676 I could do that for the mean time, but I would like to get a radio replacement at some point. My phone stays in my pocket, so it would be nice to have a way to do things on my phone without having to pull it out of my pocket every time I get in my car.
@@ludicrousspeeds4938 well you pull it out of your pocket hundreds of times per day, why is it bad if you pull it out to put it on the phone holder
Bros got the 2018 me music taste that’s rough 💀
Why did i learn about this when its getting pulled 😢
Never knew they even existed.
I use a cheap Bluetooth dongle with media controls thats tacked on my dash and gets power from USB and connects to my audio jack
Spotify shows at the bottom of my Google Maps and I can still see my Maps GPS very clearly
same, except i use waze instead
@@oliviersavard8676Google maps has better routing def. I personally run google maps with an app called highway radar which can be configured to display the police data from waze.
Every time I think Spotify can't get any worse, they somehow manage it.
I instantly thought what if we could install custom software on it. It could be a great device to do other things
you can its just so underpowered it can't run it
I'd already be happy if it keeps doing what it does, but for other music apps. Would be awesome for podcasts at work, for example.
I just contacted Spotify, showed proof of purchase via bank charge, and I got 5 months of premium refunded. I paid about $32 for car thing and I pay about $6 and some change for premium student. So it worked out perfectly, thank you for the info!!
I had no idea it exists but damn I want 2 for my cars 😂
It seriously is a cool lil device
The simplicity in a complex device is so appealing I hate the fact I couldn’t own it and only found out bout the news when it discontinued… so sad…. But they can STILL save it🤦♂️
I had one in my 1990 Miata absolutely loved it for what it was shame they’re killing it.
See that’s a perfect use case 😩
Good video and it is great to see that the community holds the Spotify accountable for doing such thing. Dear Spotify, don't expect me to renew your Spotify premium again after you just erased a product that people spent 80$ on and have nothing to make use of
Ok are there any tech people out there that can come up with some sort of software to run on this? I love how easy it is to use and the functionality is great. I wouldn't mind it just being a music player/gps screen mirror from a phone through some programming. I mean if it's possible. I'd hate to just not use it anymore.
It's just a computer with Linux and 500 mb of ram. There are available custom ROMs to flash that thing, with a little bit of additional hardware, but then you can do everything you want
@@ivansmialko6007it’s basically impossible to flash it, it’s meant to be hard to do it
The marketing for this product was TERRIBLE. I remember seeing it advertised once...ONCE...since it was released and then I never heard anything about it again afterwards.
I'm tempted to buy one to join the class action 👍
Love the music selection 👌
Thank you 😄
garbage trash hip hop selection 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
There are so many ways you could've said "they are breaking the Car Thing," and you've picked the worst.
For some reason now I want one
"unaliving" boy i love newspeak
one of the reason i still listen to my music on my mp3 player
how did i never hear of these, i wish i had one when i got my first car with it being older and everything, that really sucks they’re getting rid of it though.
Right? It’s such a cool device. So sad they’re doing this 😭
Ridiculous companies can do this, and so many people will not know and just suddenlt have a "broken" product.
Spotify is in its self-harm phase; somebody needs to wake them up.
I’m betting they blame Apple for them deciding to end support.
Drive a 03 jeep wrangler, this thing was a lifesaver when it came out. Now I’m back to potato radio
Thanks for the tip. Just got 7 months of Spotify payments back.
Yeah, that sucks because for me I drive an old-school car so I need to plug something in to my stereo/radio if I do want to use it. Just plugging in my phone is good and all, but I don’t wanna be having to look at my phone or holding my phone, especially when I’m driving my car that’s a stick shift.
literally just buy a cellphone holder and an fm transmitter dude, in total it's probably going to run you like 30$
@@oliviersavard8676 yeah I tried cell phone holders and literally none of them worked I always have to either have it in my pocket or have it in that little cubby in my center consul. i’m pretty sure that’s it’s due to the fact my phone is too big and heavy. Also sometimes when I’m driving to go somewhere I don’t bring my phone because I have a watch.🤷
Damn corpos taking over
It’s really pushing us to the edge
Closed sourced software never stops the modding community
Another reason why I don’t use spotify
It can be a stupid product for the more newer cars and people. But the way that they will discontinue it is very s*ty. They didnt consider the people who just DONT have android auto or something similar.
Open source would be such a great save for the product and company reputation, although with minimal efforts expected from Spotify itself as it won’t give them Much extra revenue
I didn’t even know that existed. That’s actually really fucking cool.
I’ve had this since I launched and I loved it and used it everyday in my car it’s a shame to see it go
I didn't even know such a thing existed.
Anything out here similar to this. I love physical music controls like this
I didn't even know this was a thing until now
i love my car thing 😭😭😭 i was so sad when i heard this news
Open sourcing this would be amazing. This could be useful for a lot of stuff. What a shame.
*Knock Knock*
“Who is it?”
*The EU*
Damn that’s sad I’ve seen tons of Uber drivers with this.
You rockin the same keycaps as me… keen eye for that kinda stuff, nice board!
It’s understood why they’re doing this, I ain’t ever even heard of this thing
I’ve always thought this thing was an interesting and useful piece of dedicated tech. Feels insane that they can do this.
Popular tech RUclipsrs when the Spotify car thing is discontinued: Let’s mod it with Android!
If I had known about Car Thing I would’ve bought it.
But now I’m glad I didn’t
That "unaliving" is pissing me off. Is it that hard to just say "discontinuing" or "shutting down"?
I knew Spotify was a waste of money
its a dark day when hardware can get shut down like this
The whole “unalive” slang is so dumb. They think they are avoiding a censor, by censoring themselves 🤦♂️
:)
@@driggsybro is making people angry and he’s proud of it 💀
and i only hear about this NOW AFTER BUYING MY CAR THING
this is the definition of buying isn't owning
I put a ras pi on mine. I completely redid everything on it and permanently mounted it into my car as a "screen" and yes, it's touch.
You should release the coding and all that!
You can also use fm transmitter for your music
i would rather kill myself
I was unhungry after I ate a burger earlier
Right to repair and right to use. They cannot "brick" a device in such a manner that it cannot be used.
That device should definitely be open-sourced so people can load custom firm/software on it!
i was one of the few who got a pre-release free one, and have had it in cars every since. :///
If I had one to mess with I'd take a shot at modding it for a custom Android OS.
Crazy that I didn’t know this product existed until it’s dead, and I would’ve bought one too. Seems like a marketing failure to me.
Best thing is that they could just keep the API that powers the car thing online so it would still work. I don't believe they are making such huge changes (if any at all besides just blocking out the car thing) that would render the car thing unusable
i really like the look of it and want to get one before they sell for a ridiculous price. Would be a cool bit of hardware to play around with.
i still use it daily attached on my computer monitor for all my music controls :(
Big companies trying not to delete cool things just to save 6$ monthly
One nice thing is people clueless on how to flash then will sell them for next to nothing thinking they're paper weights after watching all the shorts/tik toks saying they're worthless.
I'm so sad because I really wanted one when I could afford my first car 😭
what would make sense is that they just stoped pushing updates or stoped putting resources towards it, not completely bricking it.
They need to refund the funds. Giving credit is not an acceptable solution after the anti consumer move they just pulled
I didn't even know this thing existed.
Corporations just love to penetrate their customers.
...and forget the lube
never even heard of this and now it’s gone 💀
Would’ve bought it if I knew it existed there was no marketing for this
For mazda You can change the USB module and have carplay and android auto, is better solution
On a 2012 CX-9?
A real car guy knows a car by its interrior that right there is a Mazda Cx-5
Did he just say.... Unaliving?
And this is why im just ignoring existence of Spotify and using my smartphone with split-screen for Google maps and YT Music. Just making GMaps bigger and RUclips Music smaller enough to control it.
That's why i love Android OS, it's so flexible, i also can drop a flooting widget to control audio and stuff.
Good thing I still use Cassette tape on my Cadillac Brougham those still works
Cool, my MP3 player will never have that issue.
Damn that’s tuff I drive a 20 year old car and was looking for one of these to suffice for car play
I didn’t even know this was a thing to purchase lol
I'm not a Spotify user and I don't own this. However, it looks so slim, I wish they open up the FW, so I can use it at my PC. Using the Knop for volume control and the display for addition information of my hardware. Even beyond that. I know there are custom FW and similar devices, but it's a shame to “destroy” working hardware. Me as a microcontroller programmer, I would find new use cases for it.