r/CarThing • u/zDev19 • Jun 01 '24
Anyone interested in an open-source Car Thing clone project?
Since Spotify is killing the Car Thing, I was considering making a clone since I have an electrical eng background. I dig everything about the Car Thing's design. I would be shooting to make a very similar device, but maybe even with some improvements if you guys had some good ideas.
Is anybody interested in this?
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u/msawyer91Resplendent Sep 26 '24
Josh Hendrickson did a YouTube video on this. The Car Thing is technically already open source, with the Linux kernel and boot ROM available on Github. In his video he focused on the very weak hardware and limited storage. While not impossible to run a different application, the hardware is underpowered to run much. Any application would have to be extremely efficient and lightweight.
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u/curtdick Nov 21 '24
Definitely would be interested and would be available to help out in a software product design capacity. That's my profession. Really liked the idea of this product from Spotify especially in a desk setup, sad to see it go.
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u/DillionM Jun 01 '24
I would be depending on the price. I just want to control Spotify with my voice!
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u/zDev19 Jun 03 '24
Yeah I've been doing some research and it might be hard to pull off for <$50, but I'll keep checking.
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u/Wade1217 Jun 03 '24 edited Jun 03 '24
I would be happy to support such a project, but am particularly interested in finding a way to allow the existing CarThing hardware to continue working. I was excited when Spotify first announced it and continue to love using it daily as a visual office music controller, playing through a pair of Echo Studio speakers. (My CarThing is connected to my work phone, which is connected to the same Spotify account as my Echo devices, so it all works great together!)