MUO recently spoke to Andreas Cedborg, Spotify’s Head of Hardware Product, about the past, present, and future of Car Thing. Including how the design process worked, the thinking behind Car Thing, and how Spotify hopes it will impact users.

What Is Spotify’s Car Thing?

For the uninitiated, Spotify’s Car Thing is an in-vehicle accessory that mounts to your dashboard, letting you play your favorite music and podcasts through Spotify. Car Thing has been designed to be easy to use without the need to take your eyes off the road. With a combination of voice, touch, and physical controls giving you the choice.

Having been rumored for years, Car Thing was officially unveiled in April 2021, with a limited release available to invited users in the US. After positive feedback and high demand, in February 2022, Spotify invited everyone with a Premium subscription to buy one. Car Thing is, however, still only available in the US.

Spotify’s Car Thing is currently priced at $89.99 with standard shipping. And that buys you a piece of hardware dedicated to accessing Spotify in your car. Complete with the oversized dial that somewhat reminds us of the click wheel on old iPods.

We have a detailed look at Car Thing for those who want to learn more about Spotify’s in-care hardware.

An Interview With Spotify’s Head of Hardware

In an attempt to find out more about the development and future direction of Car Thing, we spoke to Andreas Cedborg, Spotify’s Head of Hardware Product.

The Car Thing Development Process

We started at the beginning, asking Cedborg about Car Thing’s origin story. Where did the idea come from and how easy was it to take Car Thing from being just an idea to a working product people would want to buy? He told us:

We then moved onto asking about the product design itself, and especially that oversized dial that can be used to quickly and easily scroll through lots of content.

How Car Thing Caters to Owners of Older Cars

That explains the how, but what about the why? In-car entertainment systems are evolving quickly to reflect the way we all consume content these days, so we wanted to know if Spotify felt pressured to create Car Thing to keep up with the trend.

We also wanted to know if Spotify had any plans to keep on evolving the product over time, to which Cedborg told us:

Hey Spotify, Make Voice Commands Work in Cars

One of the best things about Car Thing is the “Hey Spotify” voice commands that let you control Car Thing with your voice. But cars can be a particularly noisy environment and aren’t necessarily the best place to issue voice commands. However, Cedborg explained that this was all considered during the development process, saying:

While Spotify may have started out as a pure music streaming service, it has evolved in recent years, and now provides music, podcasts, and news reports. While this hasn’t gone down well with all users, Cedborg made it clear that it all ties into the company’s overall vision from the start, exclaiming:

What Does the Future Hold for Car Thing?

Car Thing generated a lot of interest right from the start, with millions of people joining the waiting list to purchase one. But did Spotify expect this level of interest? And does it expect the same level of interest to continue into the future?

Last but not least, we wanted to know about Spotify’s plans for the future of Car Thing. Right now, it’s exclusively available in the US, which means millions of Spotify users around the world are being denied the opportunity to buy one. So, we wanted to know if there are any plans to launch Car Thing outside the States. To which Cedborg replied:

Which unfortunately leaves us Spotify users located outside the US waiting and hoping for an opportunity to grab a Car Thing.

In-Car Entertainment Is Evolving, as Is Spotify

In-car entertainment, and the hardware and software powering it, is evolving at pace. However, as Spotify’s Andreas Cedborg said in our exclusive interview, automotive entertainment systems are evolving as new cars are released, leaving everyone else stuck with what they already have.

With Car Thing, Spotify has created a potential solution to that, allowing anyone with a Premium subscription to take Spotify with them on the drive.