Hyundai The First To Embrace Amazon’s Alexa?
The Connected Car market lurched forward as Hyundai now offers the ability to use Amazon’s (AMZN) Alexa voice interface to control the car. Voice controls inside the car have been around for some time in products from the Honda Motor Company (HMC) and others, but the voice technology has made even Apple’s (AAPL) Siri look like a winner. Aside from Alexa’s high marks for understanding the user, it also brings the ability to send commands from other Alexa powered devices – imagine sending a shopping list to the car before you head out! While Hyundai is the first, we rather doubt this is an exclusive arrangement and odds are we will soon see similar announcements – Alexa powered or not – from the likes of Ford (F), General Motors (GM), Volkswagen (VLKAY) and other car manufacturers.
Hyundai’s luxury car division, Genesis, said Thursday that its currently available G80 and soon-to-be-available G90 will be the first cars to allow owners to control a number of the car’s functions using Alexa, the voice recognition program from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).
To take advantage of the system, the car’s owner can issue commands to Amazon products like the Echo, Echo Dot and Tap that will then be transmitted to the car and executed. For example, an owner can say something like, “Alexa, tell Genesis to unlock my car,” and presto!
Source: Amazon’s Alexa Hits the Road With Hyundai – Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) – 24/7 Wall St.
