Spotify’s first hardware ‘Car Thing’ shows up after 2 years

Spotify Car Thing has made an appearance again but this time in a different design.

Spotify Car Thing original design (Spotify)

Back in 2019, Spotify announced it is testing its first hardware, ‘Car Thing'. It's a voice-controlled smart assistant device for cars featuring songs and podcasts that you can stream on Spotify. After almost two years since its announcement, Spotify's Car Thing has now showed up on FCC.

The Spotify Car Thing on FCC has a completely different design than the one teased earlier. Based on the images grabbed by The Verge, the Spotify Car Thing looks like a tiny tablet with a large knob and a small button just next to it. The original Car Thing shared by Spotify has a circular screen on the side that shows what is being played, and it has buttons on the other side for playback controls.

Spotify Car Thing new design (FCC via The Verge)

Spotify Car Thing new design (FCC via The Verge)

The description for the Car Thing on FCC explains how it will work, and it's similar to the original model. Spotify's Car Thing will be voice controlled with a supporting display and buttons. It will use Bluetooth to connect to the Car Head Unit, and it can be connected to a 12V power outlet. So it's basically the same thing but with a different design. There's still no word on when we'll get to see Spotify's first hardware.

When first announced, Spotify said Car Thing has been developed to learn more about how people listen to music and podcasts. It started testing the device in the US only, and with a small group of invited Spotify Premium users. The company also said it will conduct similar voice-specific tests in the future so users might hear about “Voice Thing” and “Home Thing.” We haven't heard of these yet.