Free, open source, standalone firmware for the discontinued Spotify Car Thing. No companion app, no extra account, no subscription. Flash it, connect your phone (Bluetooth) or PC (USB) for internet, sign into Spotify once, and see and control what's playing across all your devices.

Mira is free and open source. If you'd like to support development, you can do so on GitHub Sponsors or Ko-fi. Sponsors get early access to betas and access to the dev chat, both set up through Discord. Every bit genuinely helps and it's what makes this sustainable to keep working on.

• Works only with Spotify.
• Flashing wipes any existing firmware. Bricking is very unlikely, and the Car Thing can always be recovered by re-entering flash mode.
• Mira needs internet from a Bluetooth tether (phone) or a USB tether (Windows, Mac, or Linux)
• iPhone tethering uses cellular data, never Wi-Fi (unlike Android). Real-world usage is light, but be mindful of your plan.

• On-device voice control play/queue/volume/pause/resume/next/previous
• Album art/lyrics view with optional karaoke style word by word highlighting
• Podcast support with synced transcripts
• Full physical controls volume knob (across all devices), 4 preset buttons, back, power menu
• Gestures swipe to skip, two-finger swipe to switch between album art and lyrics
• Pick which of your devices plays right from the Car Thing
• Save the current song to Liked Songs
• Pair multiple Bluetooth phones
• Clock Screensaver
• Customizable Settings lyric-sync offset, knob volume step, brightness (auto or manual), UI Scale

Say "hey mira", then a command:

• "play [song]"/"play [song] by [artist]"
• "play [artist]" (their discography)/"play [album]"/"play [playlist]"
• "play my liked songs"/"play a random liked song"
• "queue [song]"/"add [song] to the queue"
• "pause"/"resume"/"next"/"skip"/"previous"/"go back"
• "volume up"/"volume down"

Everything runs completely on the device. No cloud, no account, no subscription.

• A PC (any platform)
• The Car Thing
• A data-capable USB-C cable
• mira_firmware_v1.2.1.zip, download it from the latest release

Flashing is now easier than ever thanks to Terbium's new easier flow. Note Terbium works best in a Chromium-based browser like Chrome or Edge.

Flash custom firmware at your own risk. Bricking is very unlikely, and the Car Thing can always be recovered by re-entering flash mode.

1. Windows only: install the Terbium driver bundle in PowerShell:

   irm https://driver.terbium.app/get | iex

2. Hold buttons 1 + 4 on the Car Thing while plugging in the USB cable.
   • The screen staying black means it's ready to flash.
3. Open and follow the steps on Terbium to get the device ready for flashing.
4. On the "Choose your firmware" step select Mira from the list.
   • The latest version should already be selected, if not make sure 1.2.1 is selected.
5. Press continue and let Terbium finish flashing the device.
   • Wait ~5-10 minutes. If it errors or the progress bar stalls for more than a few minutes, start again from step 3.
6. When Terbium says flashing is complete, unplug and replug the USB cable.

Alternate method: If you wish to instead download the zip file for setup follow these instructions:

1. Follow steps 1-3 from above.
2. Download mira_firmware_v1.2.1.zip from the releases page. No need to unzip it.
3. On the "Choose your firmware" step select Local archive and select the release zip.
4. Press continue and let Terbium finish flashing the device.
   • Wait ~5-10 minutes. If it errors or the progress bar stalls for more than a few minutes, start again from step 3.
5. When Terbium says flashing is complete, unplug and replug the USB cable.

Give the Car Thing ~5 minutes on first boot, until the "choose a connection" screen appears.

1. Connect the Car Thing to your PC with a data-capable cable.

2. On the Mira, tap Connect to PC.

3. Set up tethering on your computer:

   Windows (recommended path: Internet Connection Sharing via GUI):

   May be unreliable if you have WSL or Hyper-V enabled, use the alternative below if so.

   1. Press Win+R, type ncpa.cpl, Enter.
   2. Identify and take note of two adapters:
      • Your internet adapter (usually "Wi-Fi" or "Ethernet")
      • The Car Thing adapter (look for the one with "Remote NDIS" in the description)
   3. Right-click your internet adapter -> Properties -> Sharing.
   4. Check "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection", then select the Car Thing adapter in the dropdown -> OK.

   Windows (alternative: some users report stutter):

   # Find your Car Thing adapter
   Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object {$_.InterfaceDescription -like "*NDIS*"}
   # Set it up (replace "Ethernet 4" with your adapter name)
   New-NetIPAddress -InterfaceAlias "Ethernet 4" -IPAddress 172.16.42.1 -PrefixLength 24 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
   New-NetNat -Name CarThingNAT -InternalIPInterfaceAddressPrefix 172.16.42.0/24

   Mac:

   1. System Settings -> General -> Sharing.
   2. Turn on Internet Sharing, share from Wi-Fi (or Ethernet).
   3. Under "To computers using", check the Car Thing's USB interface, then flip Internet Sharing on.

   Linux:

   # The Car Thing shows up as a USB Ethernet interface, its MAC starts with a0:b1:c2.
   # Use the one whose MAC ends :e4:03 (usually enxa0b1c2d3e403).
   ip -br link | grep -i a0:b1:c2
   
   # Option A: NetworkManager shared mode. Needs dnsmasq (sudo dnf install dnsmasq).
   # Replace enxXXXX with the Car Thing interface name from above.
   sudo nmcli connection add type ethernet ifname enxXXXX con-name carthing-shared \
     ipv4.method shared ipv6.method ignore
   
   # Bring it up. Required on a Raspberry Pi, harmless on desktop Linux.
   sudo nmcli connection up carthing-shared
   
   # Option B: static IP. Replace wlan0 with your internet interface (ip route show default).
   sudo ip addr add 172.16.42.1/24 dev enxXXXX
   sudo ip link set enxXXXX up
   sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
   sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 172.16.42.0/24 -o wlan0 -j MASQUERADE

   Option A also works on a Raspberry Pi. Thanks to apeschock for testing that and finding the nmcli connection up step.

4. After a few seconds Mira will pick up internet and show a QR code for signing in, scan it (or open the link) and sign into Spotify.

1. Enable Bluetooth tethering on your phone FIRST:
   • Android: Settings -> Connections -> Mobile Hotspot and Tethering -> Bluetooth tethering -> ON (resets whenever you turn Bluetooth off).
   • iPhone: Settings -> Personal Hotspot -> Allow Others to Join -> ON.
2. On Mira, tap Connect with Bluetooth.
3. Open Bluetooth settings on your phone and tap Mira.
4. Confirm on your phone and Mira that the 6 digit codes match.
5. After a few seconds Mira shows a QR code, scan it and sign into Spotify.

If you paired on an older firmware version, remove Mira from your phone's Bluetooth list and pair again.

• Play something on any Spotify device and Mira displays it.
• Tap the controls for play/pause/next/prev, drag the progress bar to scrub, tap a lyric line to jump to it.
• Physical controls: turn the knob for volume (press = play/pause), the 4 presets jump to a saved context (press-and-hold a preset to save the current playlist/artist/podcast), back steps back, power opens the power menu (double press = sleep).
• Gestures: one-finger swipe left/right to skip; two-finger swipe up/down to switch album art or lyric views.
• The 3-dot menu has the lyrics + karaoke + mic toggles, Bluetooth management, the device picker, and Settings (lyric offset, knob volume step, brightness).

• Waking from sleep or a long idle period can occasionally be flaky.
• On Bluetooth it may not always auto-reconnect on its own

Please include: what you were doing (step by step), Mira firmware version, your phone/OS version, and what you saw vs. what you expected.

• Discord: https://discord.gg/SR2Pne7EPM
  • #setup-guide - getting it running
  • #support - ask for help
  • #feedback - bugs, suggestions
  • #showcase - show off your setup

Built by other people. Not maintained by this project and not covered by Mira's support.

• ESP32-S3 wireless gateway by Loic760. Gives the Car Thing internet from a ESP32-S3 board instead of a phone or PC, so it can run standalone, and exposes brightness, playback state and screen control to Home Assistant through ESPHome. It ships as its own modified firmware build rather than an add-on, so you flash it instead of a Mira release, and the author has said he does not plan to maintain it.

Mira contacts a server a few times a day to fetch the time and check for updates. On first boot it also asks whether it may count your device using a one-way hashed ID, which helps me gauge whether Mira is worth continuing to improve. You can say no, and it will still get the time and update info either way. No account, no listening history, and voice control still runs entirely on the device.

"Spotify" and "Car Thing" are trademarks of Spotify AB. This software is not affiliated with or endorsed by Spotify AB.