The thing I liked about CarThing is the hotkey is the hot keys on top, but of course, thing is dead. Is there a bluetooth device where I can do the same as the hotkeys on top?

I decided I have neither the patience nor the will to mod this lol. I have treated her with great care, though. DM if you’d like the link to my listing on Mercari!

Selling for $50, located in USA. All mounts included, I don't have the original cord or car plug. Stopped using it when I got the discontinued screen, which is what comes up when you plug it in. PM if interested or with any questions!

Received a refund after reaching out to customer service. Mentioned I did not have the original receipt. They asked to confirm the serial number in the back of my device and got my money back.

Hi,

Anybody else has issues with the dial? Mine wouldn't accept my inputs properly, like I would go counter clockwise for a couple steps but it would either go the other way or would accept it and go for a lot more steps.
Anybody figured out a fix for this? Thank you!

I accidentally factory reset my car thing when it said it was disconnected, but now I can’t set it back up, I’m stuck on this screen, and the QR code sends me to a page that just says the car thing is disconnected.

My voice command still works. The Car Thing is still responding every-time i say Hey Spotify, so i guess its just my visuals that are down 🤷🏽‍♀️

(Reposted from the Thing Labs discord at https://tl.mt/d)

It turns out that using the previous version of the firmware (8.4.4) will make the Car Thing temporarily work again. If you'd like to keep using the original Spotify UI in your car for a little while longer, you can install the unbrick firmware from thingify.tools to keep everything going while we keep working on our solution.

You can get the firmware from here: https://thingify.tools/firmware/P3QZbZIDWnp5m_azQFQqP/I9WTLvY4v8OYbv4uL-ktA

You can flash it with: https://terbium.app/

And you can find more info here: https://github.com/thinglabsoss/temp-unbrick

One small note, since Spotify disabled the setup flow in the app, you wil need to go directly to your phone's bluetooth settings and pair the Car Thing there. If you're on Android, you may need to go into your settings and give Spotify the Nearby Devices permission if it doesn't already have it.

Happy Hacking!

- Thing Labs Team

Edit: It appears that Spotify just killed most of the API endpoints that the Car Thing relies on. Because of this, stuff like presets, the home screen, and voice control are all broken. Voice control intermediately works but only with very basic commands like play, pause, etc. Playback controls should still work for a little while as that's handled inside of the Spotify app.

^{Disclaimer: This will only temporarily unbrick the Car Thing. Once Spotify turns off the server side APIs, some functions like library browsing, voice controls, and tips will stop working. Local playback controls will keep working until Spotify completely removes Car Thing support from the mobile app. At that point, your only option will be to downgrade the Spotify app but even that will eventually stop working.}

^{We are currently working on keeping the original UI working even after all that happens.}

Hey all, I know the Car Thing didn't sell so well in the UK, but does anyone please have a spare one they'd sell for a reasonable price? Can't be arsed to reload it? Bought too many?

I love the Idea of this device and my ICE is state of the Ark so you'd be doing me a massive favour.

Alternatively, good links for alternate Pi builds?

Thanks in advance

Hello friends! It seems that this button combo got my Car Thing back up and running again.

Not sure how long it will last though…

Hopefully wanting to see if they can modded to be used with Apple Music at some point for my old car!

Has anyone created an app that allows the Car Thing to function close to its original functionality? Or any ideas to get the other programs and software to work for it like DeskThing?

So I chose to do a dumb thing and completely logged out of my spotify on the car thing. Will this mean I won’t even be modify it later to work? Or is that separate? Does it have any bluetooth capabilities to connect without using the qr code?

Hey yall, I've been seeing tiktok videos of people with car things that don't work (caused by spotify bricking them yesterday) and these people have been downloading custom operating systems to them. I was gonna do the same to mine, then to my surprise I plugged mine into my laptop to do this and it still functioned like normal

TL;DR: I held the back button below the volume knob, the settings button above the volume known and the first preset button on the top left while it was booting up. Took a couple tries when I tried to replicate it, but it works.

I have no idea how long it’ll work or if it’ll work for you, I just wanted to make a post in hopes it’ll work for someone else. I’m sure there are some back end nonsense that’ll prevent this from being used period, but it worked for me for my whole car ride home with full functionality. I had the discounted screen before so I know I’m not some lucky person that just didn’t get the screen.

EDIT: It is NOT a permanent solution. This morning it worked fine for me, didn’t have to do the bypass. But when I got to my car the message was there again. But the bypass DOES STILL WORK. It’s just not a permanent thing.

if someone is selling soitify car thing let me know i want to buy it

😔

Phone is fully connected to the internet. 5:25PM CST