Amazon’s Alexa Coming to Cars in 2019

Alexa ‘on the go’ starts at 7 minutes 10 seconds.

Amazon has plans to get Alexa into cars. “It makes more sense to use voice,” said Ned Curic, vice-president of Amazon’s Alexa Auto division, at Automobiilty LA 2018. “You want to keep your hand on the wheel and eyes on the road.”

The voice-activated assistant will help drivers with tools like maps and music navigation, among other things.

How to Get Alexa in Your Car Now

Amazon’s goal is to have Alexa embedded right into automobile dashboards. In the meantime, a handful of stand-alone products will bring Alexa into your car now (or by January of 2019). Here are a few:

• Garmin Speak – This device is on sale currently for $49.99. It connects to your smartphone and the Garmin Speak app. Then you can use Alexa to connect to music, navigation and more.
• Muse Auto Alexa Voice Assistant – You can get this device on sale for $48.39. It connects to your smartphone to use voice commands with Alexa.
• Amazon has also created its own device, the Echo Auto, which will be available in 2019. You can pre-order it now for $24.99 or $49.99 after it launches. It gives all the Alexa functions including navigation and points of interest work seamlessly in a vehicle.

Cars with Echo Auto Built-In

Audi’s 2019 electric car, the e-tron, will have Alexa functionality. BMW will also add Alexa functionality in all of their models next year. Amazon is partnering with other car manufacturers including Ford, Lexus, Toyota, Sert, Lincoln and others that will be announcing that their systems include Alexa sometime in 2019.

Big players like Apple and Google have had voice assistants in the car market for some time. Time will tell who wins: Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa.