Lamborghini and Rivian Will Integrate Alexa into 2020 Car Models
Lamborghini and Rivian are the latest car companies to add Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to some of their models. Amazon revealed the integrations as part of its slate of announcements at CES in Las Vegas this year.
New Alexa Autos
Lamborghini will start including Alexa in the Huracan Evo line of cars this year, Rivian will do the same its first all-electric vehicles, the R1S and R1T. Rivian is also building 100,000 electric Amazon delivery vans with Alexa. Drivers will be able to use Alexa for the standard music, news, and navigation services, turning the car into a kind of smart speaker. The car will also extend control of Alexa-powered smart home devices, allowing users to potentially unlock the door and turn on the lights from the driveway.
“Our vision is for Alexa to become a natural, intuitive part of the driving experience, and Lamborghini has embraced that by integrating Alexa directly into its onboard infotainment systems,” adds vice president of Alexa Auto Ned Curic said in a statement. “The integration will enable Lamborghini owners to enjoy the convenience of an intelligent voice service while focusing on the joy of the Lamborghini driving experience, and we expect it to set a new standard for in-car voice experiences when it ships this year.”
Car Voices
These automobile models will embed the voice assistant directly into their systems through the Alexa Auto SDK. That means drivers can call up Alexa without a third-party device connecting a smartphone or syncing Alexa with the car’s own voice assistant. Lamborghini and Rivian are not the first car companies to make Alexa a part of their product line. Volkswagen and General Motors made similar announcements in 2019. Interest in the concept is on the rise, however.
A recent Capgemini Research Institute report predicts that close to three-quarters of drivers will use one by 2022. Amazon and other voice assistant developers are keen to extend their platforms to new vehicles. Honda is making its own announcement about its new voice assistant powered by SoundHound’s Houndify platform. Meanwhile, Google created a kind of Google Assistant Action for the Tata Altroz and Ford has built its own voice assistant in-house for its vehicles. Cerence, the company behind many car voice assistants, has even debuted a tool for people to record custom voices as their assistant in the car. Voice technology for automobiles is on the rise, watch for more on the topic in Voicebot’s CES coverage.
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