Amazon wants to control your car thanks to Alexa

At CES in Las Vegas 2021, Amazon began looking into this: Alexa, its voice assistant, will replace the technologies that automakers are trying to configure in their cars. Lamborghini and Rivian had been introduced as the first two partners, but now Amazon reports today that they have bigger ambitions.

As with FCA (Fiat Chrysler group that merged with PSA), other manufacturers could work with Amazon to offer one “Simultaneous collaboration with several assistants”. In other words, Alexa’s artificial intelligence would complement manufacturers’ voice assistance programs to respond to “For daily needs”.

Amazon wants to sell its Alexa technologies

In a press release this Friday, Amazon announced the news by introducing a new service: Alexa Custom Assistant. It will be a more customizable version of its voice assistant technology. This allows automakers who wish to introduce Alexa into their cars while also configuring the voices and services in their brand colors.

For example, each manufacturer can choose a different term to activate the assistant instead of pronouncing the name “Alexa” to dictate a request. Not all commands to the on-board computer are necessarily supported, as Amazon believes that manufacturers may want to keep their own technology out for technical reasons.

With this coexistence “This allows the brand assistant to act as a product specialist, while Alexa is always available for daily needs.”Amazon wrote in a statement. This offer should also enable brands to reduce “Cost, Complexity and Time-to-Market”.

Of course, the automobile won’t be the only integration possible, and Amazon seems determined to make Alexa Custom Assistant an integration program across more platforms. However, automakers have had a peculiarity not to depend on any technology other than their own, and the entire market has generally lagged behind technological advances in terms of these digital and audio interfaces.