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The Spotify Car Thing is officially on sale for the masses. Its limited-release trial periods are over, and now anyone can buy it for $89.99.
The little music player’s premise remains the same. It’s meant to bring deep Spotify access to older cars that don’t have today’s convenient Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity features. It features a touchscreen, a dial, preset buttons and voice control. The interface is a car-friendly copy of the Spotify app on your phone with big icons meant to make inputs easier than what you might get tapping away on your smartphone.
Some updates for Car Thing are coming based on Spotify’s learnings in the year-long trial period it’s gone through. For example, it’s developing a Night Mode for the screen, and an “Add to Queue” command is also coming. The latter is key if you and your friends are trying to build a playlist via voice command for a long road trip. We’re a little surprised it didn’t have a night mode to begin, but at least Spotify is integrating it now.
If you want a Car Thing, make sure you have the proper hardware to make it work — you’ll also need to be a Spotify Premium user. It requires a power source (12V outlet or USB outlet), and you also need to be able to connect your phone to the car’s audio system by way of Bluetooth, USB cable or aux cable, since the Car Thing doesn’t hook up to the audio system. If your car is old enough that it doesn’t have any of those, then you’re out of luck — of course, you can always install a newer head unit to gain access to a number of those connectivity options, but that costs even more money.
Those interested in buying can find the Spotify Car Thing listed on Spotify’s official website here.
Every car forum has threads devoted to broken infotainment systems. As vehicles pile on the tech controlled through infotainment systems, it's inevitable that every automaker will get its time in the spotlight — or the courts — to deal with the innumerable traps hidden in ginormous amounts of code found in the average modern car. Now it's Mazda's turn, but only for certain Mazdas from the 2014 to 2017 model years, and only those in the Seattle area able to pick up National Public Radio station KUOW.
A piece in the Seattle Times explains that something in the HD Radio signal KUOW sends is nearly bricking the infotainment systems in these vehicles. The common thread is that after the inciting incident, the radio will only play KUOW. And, since the screen will only play the Mazda wake-up animation repeatedly, owners have lost access to their navigation, Bluetooth, reversing camera and vehicle information.
No one believes it's an NPR conspiracy. Yet. The Seattle Times spoke to a few owners, a couple of dealers, Mazda and Xperi, a company making the software HD radio runs on. Mazda fingered the culprit as the station transmitting image files without an extension, say for an album cover, that Mazda's media software tries and fails to process, with tragic results. Mazda didn't say why this issue is only happening on the model years at issue, nor why this specific software can't work around a file extension error, which have existed as long as there have been files.
The story is one of those that might make you shake your head and offer a tragic chuckle for the unfortunate, then look at your car outside and wonder, "How long until you do me like this?" The little snafus seem likelier every day, given that we weren't joking about the amount of software in today's cars. Way back in 2009, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers wrote, "It takes dozens of microprocessors running 100 million lines of code to get a premium car out of the driveway, and this software is only going to get more complex." That's about four times the amount of code needed to operate the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, almost 70% more than all of the code that runs Facebook. This was before the all-out race for driver convenience features, vehicles becoming digital nodes and the industry's quest to catch up to consumer electronics software cycles. Imagine how many more lines have been compiled in 13 years, and how many more are to come (Level 3 autonomy, anyone?).
Before you do that, though, check out the Seattle Times story. And kudos to Mazda for stepping up take care of affected vehicles while everyone tries to figure out what's happening.
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