Recap: Spotify in 2019 announced it was testing a voice-controlled smart player for vehicles. Dubbed Car Thing, the gadget was developed to learn more about the listening habits of people during commutes. Spotify initially set out to trial Car Thing with a small group of Premium members, but eventually made it available to a wider audience on an invite-only basis. Now, it's launching as a full-on consumer product.
Car Thing makes it easier for listeners to play music and podcasts in their vehicles, especially if said vehicle is an older model lacking an advanced stereo head unit. The device itself features a four-inch touchscreen display alongside a control dial, a back button, a settings button and four preset buttons. There's also an array of four noise-cancelling microphones to process voice commands.
Car Thing connects to the Spotify app on your smartphone, and uses its Wi-Fi or mobile data plan. So long as you can play music from your phone on your car stereo currently, Car Thing should work for you. The device requires a Spotify Premium account, so ad-supported users need not apply. Future versions of the device will incorporate requests from early testers, like an auto-dimming screen and support for an "add to queue" voice command.
Interested parties can grab Spotify's Car Thing for $89.99 (that's $10 more than the previously quoted MSRP) over on Spotify's website.