Car Thing Display Not Viewable with Polarized Lenses

[paostu]

The display on car thing becomes entirely obscured with wearing polarized eyewear. Makes it unusable if you are using sunglasses while driving (which is 90% of my driving)

Included a demonstrative image.

[kjjm]

Wouldn't it have been a good idea to design a device specifically for the car that had an LCD screen that didn't conflict with polarized sunglasses? I can't see the screen through my polarized lenses unless I tilt my head quite a bit which isn't optimal while driving. Has any thought been given to this and will it be redesigned?

[MafeG]

Hi @kjjm,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for posting.

We appreciate you taking the time to share that feedback with us. If you'd like to see a change on the Car Thing, then we suggest you submit an idea requesting it.

In this article you can find the steps to submit it. We always take new ideas and feedback into consideration to improve the app. Here you can read more on how ideas work.

We'll be on the lookout.

[kjjm]

My first question was rhetorical - this is a fault in the product. LCD screens in cars are designed to work with polarized lenses. I'll submit the "idea" nevertheless, but this should really be seen as a request to fix a mistake.

[icantbreak]

This is absolutely a fault in the design. A built-in car screen would definitely take polarization into account when being designed, and the Car Thing should have, too. I actually only just ran into this issue because I had kept the plastic on my Thing since I was initially unsure whether I was going to keep it (got it on launch). Today I finally remembered that the plastic was still there and went to remove it. As I pulled it off I noticed that I couldn't see anything on the screen. I hadn't gotten the plastic sticker all the way off, so I was able to carefully re-apply it. I was sure there'd be some discussion on here and I'm surprised this is the only thread I found.

[Nlaughton]

Lol yup. I submitted one just like this and got the response “We've closed your idea as we can pass this feedback on directly and it's not really suited for the idea submission process.” Which is basically them admitting, oh yeah, we totally F’ed that one up, we’ll fix it. So my question is: when can you send me a replacement that actually works??

[Yordan]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for bringing your feedback to the Community.

Our tech team has already been made aware of this issue. If your device is still within warranty, you can request a replacement by checking out the Return & Refund Policy link at the bottom of this page.

We hope this helps!

Take care,

[icantbreak]

Is that a joke? How is a warranty replacement going to fix a design issue? Are the newer units polarized the "right" way?

[kjjm]

Yes, it is a joke - but not funny. They've stopped making Car Thing so it's a dead product and remaining stock is being sold at $30 each. Spotify says the devices "will still perform as intended," but I'm assuming there will be no more major software improvements though I hope that they will maintain security and fix bugs for a while.

[paostu]

The answer is no, because I have already completed the entire unit replacement process, and the screen polarization issue is identical.