Spotify's Car Thing Is Resurrected, Thanks To Community Firmware Wizards Who Refused To Abandon It

Do you remember Car Thing? The hardware was Spotify's now-abandoned device to control streaming music from the platform, rather than relying on built-in car software, like CarPlay or Android Auto. However, Spotify killed off Car Thing after just a few months. First announced in 2019, Car Thing later launched in 2021 in a limited capacity, before becoming generally available in 2022. It was on sale from February to July, before Spotify pulled the plug on producing it.

Unfortunately, December 2024 rolled around, and Spotify then buried the entire product, stopping any remaining Car Things from working. No longer functional, Spotify overnight had created e-waste that was useless to owners. Until, much like those hacking Amazon Echo Show, some hardware tinkerers created Mira, custom firmware for dead Car Things to bring them back. All you need is the download, a USB-C cable, and a Car Thing to get started.

Setup will require you to tether Car Thing to your PC or phone to connect via Bluetooth to access Spotify. Once all connected, hook up Car Thing wherever you want it, and you can once again use it to control the music that's streaming from your phone. Most of the original features that you'd expect are here, including podcast support, lyrics view, source options, and various methods of control (including gesture, physical, and voice).

As of August 2026, the current version of Mira, 1.0, has two known issues. These are Bluetooth not always automatically reconnecting and waking from sleep can occasionally be flaky. That said, the project's GitHub page is incredibly detailed and even comes with a troubleshooting section.

Mira is the latest in a line of consumers attempting to resurrect hardware unceremoniously killed off by the big tech company. As we mentioned above, users are removing Amazon's tight software restrictions from Echo Shows, or in the software arena, a developer has managed to create a snapshot of AOL 2.5 from 1995. Unlike that AOL project, Car Thing was still a completely viable piece of hardware that Spotify could have supported without much impact to its daily operations.

Instead, the company decided to opt into the Google or Microsoft route, and kill off the entire product line. Currently, Spotify has none of its own hardware on the market. Despite announcing a focus on hardware in 2017, only Car Thing has materialized properly. It's probably even more unlikely now, especially with the ongoing price crisis in tech over AI data centers causing hardware prices to increase, that we'll ever see anything from Spotify like this again.