Amazon’sAlexaalready rules the smart home space (although Google Home and Apple HomeKit are no slouches in the space). In recent years, the company has started pushing into the automotive space. Instead of just light integration, several car brands have Alexa Built-in, more deeply integrating the assistant into their vehicles.
How is Alexa Built-in different from a simple Alexa integration, and what cars can you get with the full Alexa Built-in experience? These questions and more are exactly what we’re going to answer today.
What is Alexa Built-in?
Alexa Built-in means your car will work similarly to anEcho speakerin the home. You can ask Alexa to play music, listen to audiobooks, read the news, make a phone call, tell you the weather forecast, control your smart home devices, get directions, find parking, and more. This is hands-free, allowing you to keep your eyes on the road and minimizing distracted driving.
For listening to music specifically, Alexa supports popular services like Amazon Music Unlimited, iHeartRadio, Pandora, TuneIn, and more. You can also use Amazon’s own Audible for audiobooks, so there’s no shortage of entertainment accessible through Alexa directly in your car.
An example of using Alexa Built-in would be pulling into your driveway and telling Alexa to turn on the lights in your living room, play some music in the kitchen, and unlock the front door. You could also tell it to check something off your to-do list that you accomplished while you were out and about. you’re able to get pretty deep into your connected stuff, making getting things done on your drive easy and, more importantly, safe.
It’s a nice convenience to have in your car, and it’s becoming quite popular, with most major US automobile makers adding it to their newer cars.
Which cars have Alexa Built-in available?
Amazon has partnered with various automakers to add Alexa to their cars. Whether you want to drive a top-of-the-line, fully loaded luxury sedan or apractical family SUV, if you’re looking at a relatively new car, there’s a good chance it has Alexa support. Here’s the complete rundown of cars that support Alexa Built-in (the year followed by “+” means that year and newer models):
Alfa Romero
BMW (There are several more BMW models with support through the My BMW App, but those are not Alexa Built-in)
Ford (Ford has other models with Alexa app support, but those are not the full Alexa built-in experience)
Lamborghini
Land Rover
Lexus (Lexus offers several models with support through the Alexa app, but none with Alexa built-in)
Toyota (Lexus offers several models with support through the Alexa app, but none with Alexa built-in)
