It can then listen for you to ask it all the sorts of questions one asks of a voice assistant. Like the old one, the new Echo Auto is a little microphone-equipped smart box that connects to your phone and car via bluetooth (or 3.5mm cable as needed), while drawing power from your phone’s USB port. Look, if you really prefer using Amazon Alexa – and a lot of people do – over Siri on the iPhone or Google Assistant on Android, then this is probably one of the easiest ways to get it into your car.Īndroid users won’t have much use for it, since you can set Alexa as your default voice assistant on any Android phone, but iPhone users don’t have that sort of customisation available to them – and those are perhaps the target customer for this new upgraded Echo Auto. The new Amazon Alexa Echo Auto Echo Auto upgraded with new design and ease of use

This upgrade is thanks to the launch of Alexa Custom in late 2021, developed to effectively incentivise car makers to license and lean on Amazon tech, rather than investing in what usually proves to be a poor imitation of the voice assistants packed into our phones and home smart speakers. This will likely mean owners will continue to say “hey BMW” to invoke the assistant, rather than “hey Alexa”. What’s the difference? Apart from being able to more intelligently understand what you want from it – whether it’s answering a question, setting a reminder, calling a contact, playing media or controlling features of the car – the new system will also allow BMW to set its own custom wake words.

Amazon’s Echo Auto accessory has been refreshedįor those who prefer Alexa – Amazon’s rival to Siri and Google Assistant (and, *cough* Samsung Bixby) – BMW has confirmed it will integrate the new Alexa Custom Assistant into its own in-car voice assistant.īMW has already offered integration with Amazon Alexa since 2018, but in this new form, BMW’s native voice assistant will be powered by the online shopping giant’s considerably more advanced and evolved smarts.

More capable than existing Alexa support.

BMW’s new voice assistant will be powered by Alexa.

Amazon idrive