The evolution of in-car entertainment is a story of rapidly disappearing formats, none more obsolete than the cassette tape player and its predecessor, the 8-track player. While they offered a way to personalize music before digital technology, they were clumsy, unreliable, and delivered poor audio quality. Tapes famously melted in the heat, snarled their delicate ribbon inside the player, and forced drivers to endlessly "flip" the tape. The move from these analog systems to CDs, and eventually to modern Bluetooth and streaming, has provided drivers with seamless, high-quality audio that makes the magnetic tape systems feel like a bizarre, unnecessary burden.
