Automotive News - Traverse City - August 7, 2019 - 6

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Amazon seeks a seat for Alexa in more vehicles
Tech firm expanding
reach in the industry
Published July 15, 2019,
in Automotive News
Michael Wayland

autonews@crain.com

mazon Inc. plans to continue talking its way into the
automotive industry with
its Alexa voice assistant.
The tech giant is expected to grow
its Alexa-enabled offerings in the
coming months and years, including
a significant expansion into the embedded software systems of vehicles.
Bringing the popular voice assistant
into vehicles is part of a growing auto-

Ford and Amazon teamed up to allow consumers to access their car from
home and to use other features from their vehicle via Alexa.

motive business portfolio for Amazon
that includes a consumer research
website and a substantial investment

in electric-vehicle startup Rivian Inc.
In 2016, automakers started partnering with Amazon to do rudimen-

tary tasks such as checking fuel levels
and starting the vehicle remotely.
That grew to Alexa being enabled
through a vehicle's sound system via
an app and through automotive accessories with Alexa built-in.
"The real North Star for us is to be
embedded with all the cars," Ned Curic, vice president of Amazon Alexa
Automotive, told Automotive News.
"That's where we want to get. We're
working very hard to get there because
we believe that is the best experience."
Curic declined to comment on
how many automakers Amazon is in
discussions with about embedding
Alexa into their vehicles but said
consumers should expect "a significant number of vehicles having ac-

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cess to Alexa" in the coming years.
Audi and BMW Group, including
the Mini brand, are the first to begin
installing Alexa into their vehicles'
software system.

Luxury brands
Curic, a former executive with Toyota Motor North America, said starting with luxury brands was important because of their commitment to
connectivity, including the ability to
remotely update Alexa's software.
"We update our experiences constantly on a weekly basis, and that's not
something the auto industry is used
to," he said. "When we have embedded
experience, it's quite important that
experience is really solid, and obviously there will always be need to improve.
We're working closely with them."
Audi plans to roll out Alexa gradually across its vehicle fleet, spokeswoman Amelia Fine-Morrison said.
Audi launched Alexa on the new
e-tron all-electric crossover last year.
The next vehicle will be the redesigned Q3, she said.
BMW's partnership with Amazon
for Alexa is about providing a seamless experience between their home
devices and their vehicles for their
"digital lifestyles," said Dieter May,
BMW's senior vice president of digital services and business models.
Connecting the in-home and
in-vehicle experiences is the aim of
embedding Alexa in more vehicles,
Curic said.
Voice-enabled devices have been
adopted more quickly than many industry onlookers expected since Alexa launched in 2014 due to their
hands-free convenience, connectivity and functionality.
EMarketer forecasts that in 2019 74.2
million people in the U.S. will use a
smart speaker, up 15 percent over
2018. Amazon's Echo speaker with Alexa is expected to capture 63 percent
of that market in 2019, according to
eMarketer, a research company.
At home, Alexa devices allow owners to use voice commands to play
music and get information ranging
from weather forecasts to a store's location and hours. They also can control other smart home devices, such
as a Nest thermostat.

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In the vehicle, Alexa gives drivers remote access to the technology. With
greater integration, drivers could control everything a traditional voice
command system could do, including
placing phone calls and tuning the radio, along with controlling all smart
devices in the owner's home. The
prospect of Alexa in autonomous vehicles further opens up its potential use
cases, according to Curic.
"Whatever happens, autonomous
vehicles will give tons more time for
consumers to do things inside the
vehicle," he said.
"We see that sort of natural transition. It would be as if you're sitting
on the couch at home."
Alexa is one of several ways Amazon
is entering the automotive industry or
partnering with automakers.
In February, the company led an investment round of $700 million in Rivian. It launched Amazon Auto, a consumer review website in 2016, and Amazon Web Services has been expanding its automotive presence, including
Cox Automotive moving its infrastructure to the cloud-based operation. a

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