Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

CES 2017: Ford to Integrate Alexa Virtual Assistant into its Cars From Next Month

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,122
38,884



Ford has announced it is teaming up with Amazon to integrate Alexa virtual assistant into its cars, allowing vehicle owners to access shop, search, and control smart home features on the road.

The partnership means owners of Ford cars equipped with the SYNC 3 AppLink system will be able to access Amazon's Alexa voice-activated virtual assistant from the driver's seat, enabling them to check the weather, add items to shopping lists, play audiobooks, and control Alexa-compatible smart home devices, like lights and thermostats.

FordCES_AmazonAlexa_1-800x660.jpg

"Ford and Amazon are aligned around a vision that your voice should be the primary way to interface with your favorite devices and services," said Don Butler, executive director, Ford Connected Vehicle and Services. "Customers will be able to start their vehicles from home, and manage smart home features while on the road - making life easier."
Click to expand...
Ford said that beginning next month, some owners of its vehicles will be able to use Alexa voice commands to access certain car functions and even check the range of their car. Specifically, owners of the Ford Focus Electric, Fusion Energy, and the C-MAX Energy will be able to use their Amazon Echo or Echo Dot smart speaker in the home to lock their car or start the engine remotely. Ford said it plans to offer the Alexa commands in more of its SYNC Connect cars at a later date.

The second phase of the rollout, expected this summer, allows Ford owners to tap into a broad set of Alexa skills using their voice while driving - helping them keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.
"We're excited to work with Ford to enhance the driver experience both inside and outside of the vehicle," said Steve Rabuchin, vice president, Amazon Alexa. "We believe voice is the future, and this is particularly true in cars. The ability to use your voice to control your smart home, access entertainment, manage to-do lists and more makes for an extraordinary driving experience. We can't wait for Ford customers to try this out."
Click to expand...
Amazon's Alexa has been cropping up in a range of upcoming products at CES so far this year, appearing in third-party smart speakers, TVs, lamps, and even refrigerators.

Article Link: CES 2017: Ford to Integrate Alexa Virtual Assistant into its Cars From Next Month
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/05/ces-2017-ford-alexa-cars-from-next-month/
This is huge for Amazon. Aside from Apple CarPlay and Android play, now the echo is making its way from the home into the vehicle. And it's another bridge for Alexa to control various functions inside the car. And Alexa is proprietary to Amazon, which I'm curious to see how that would expand into other vehicles aside from Ford testing it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iamPro, 69Mustang and JimmyJimmyYam
I got an echo dot thingy as a present a few months ago. It sits in the kitchen and other thank a handful of times to play with it at the beginning, it gets zero use. As much as I like Apple, I also rarely use Siri. I don't really have much of a use case for verbal interaction with a computer, but that just might be my age showing. Having said all that it does seem to me that a car is a place where verbal commands make perfect sense. We shall see how this develops and who takes control in the cars. The auto industry is being cautious and resistant to giving up user experience to another company, yet it makes sense that the interaction would be something familiar like Siri or Alexa that provides a consistent experience in multiple settings.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 69Mustang
Meanwhile Ford is outspoken opponent of CarPlay and GoogleAuto to the effect it even established, with Toyota, an industry consortium against these interfaces. Their fear is either would become so popular as to reduce manufacturer's ability to design interfaces (as-if car makers were actually good at that ever). So I'm wondering what does Ford think will happen by introducing Amazon's Alexa into it's cars?

That aside, Amazon has been hustling Alexa to perfection. This was a breakout season for it. Tim Cook ought to be worried. If Apple doesn't come up with a dedicated hub and promote Homekit more it may very well pigeon hole all of those subscription services he's been positioning as the future of Apple. Instead of Amazon putting its apps on iOS devices, the future may be Apple looking for entrance into Alexa devices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iPhonetherefore, iamPro and JimmyJimmyYam
I welcome this with caution... Alexa is cool (way better than Siri), but I really don't want to pay a data plan for my car just yet!!!
 
JimmyJimmyYam said:
I welcome this with caution... Alexa is cool (way better than Siri), but I really don't want to pay a data plan for my car just yet!!!
Click to expand...
what about wifi hotspot on your phone? or they could take the tom tom approach and supply with a sim card for free
 
Relentless Power said:
This is huge for Amazon. Aside from Apple CarPlay and Android play, now the echo Alexa is making its way from the home into the vehicle. And it's another bridge for Alexa to control various functions inside the car. And Alexa is proprietary to Amazon, which I'm curious to see how that would expand into other vehicles aside from Ford testing it.
Click to expand...

You're exactly right. This is huge for Amazon. But more than that, Amazon brilliantly positioned Alexa to jump over Apple and most surprisingly Google. Alexa isn't tied to any ecosystem, Amazon gives it away (or charges very, very reasonable fees), and they allow people to build it out. Not only allow, they encourage it: https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit. Amazon also handles all of the heavy lifting on their servers.

For voice control, looks like Alexa is going to be everywhere soon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LeadingHeat and CarpalMac
yg17 said:
Huh? Android Auto and CarPlay are available on all 2017 Ford models.
Click to expand...


Yes, but Ford is also playing the other side too. It's a founding member, with Toyota, of the smart device link consortium (https://www.smartdevicelink.com). The goal of this group is to provide car makers with an open source backend for universal device connectivity while leaving the interface 100% up to the respective car maker. The end goal is to prevent CarPlay and Google Auto from becoming a standard.

More:

https://media.ford.com/content/ford...ota-establish-smartdevicelink-consortium.html

https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/03/ford-and-toyota-team-up-to-launch-the-smartdevicelink-consortium/
 
I
dilbert99 said:
what about wifi hotspot on your phone? or they could take the tom tom approach and supply with a sim card for free
Click to expand...

I think the free / included approach is good for a $20k+ car purchase! That said, not all data networks are created equally...
 
MacRumors said:
Ford said that beginning next month, some owners of its vehicles will be able to use Alexa voice commands to access certain car functions and even check the range of their car. Specifically, owners of the Ford Focus Electric, Fusion Energy, and the C-MAX Energy...
Click to expand...

I can do just about everything mentioned, save for maybe accessing "certain car functions" (whatever that means) with CarPlay and Siri. I can also open my garage door and set the house temperature and even turn on the Christmas lights, via Siri, from the car. I can even turn the car on, unlock or lock it, and check the charge level and range from my  Watch.

"Certain car functions": that sounds like what Ford was complaining about letting CarPlay and Android Auto have access to just earlier this week. So they're now going to turn the keys to the car, so to speak, over to the Sears Catalog of the Internet? Because you need to order that new set of tires after that last burnout while driving?

And a minor editorial note to the author: it's Energi, not Energy.
 
Because everyone will love having every single word they say in their vehicle recorded and sent to the cloud.

Ever yelled something at someone when they cut you off in traffic? Now that'll be stored in the cloud and even available to be subpoenaed for evidence.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aaroman
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
Because everyone will love having every single word they say in their vehicle recorded and sent to the cloud.

Ever yelled something at someone when they cut you off in traffic? Now that'll be stored in the cloud and even available to be subpoenaed for evidence.
Click to expand...

Maybe because it doesn't do that at all and only listens for a trigger word locally? But ya know... facts.
 
They should just call this year's CES "Alexa-Conf 2017" Remarkable how many people are partnering with Amazon because

A) Siri is closed and won't be available on any non-Apple devices
B) Google Assistant wants all of this data that 3rd party manufacturers don't want to give up about their customers.

Alexa is this neutral island.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iPhonetherefore
Chupa Chupa said:
Meanwhile Ford is outspoken opponent of CarPlay and GoogleAuto to the effect it even established, with Toyota, an industry consortium against these interfaces. Their fear is either would become so popular as to reduce manufacturer's ability to design interfaces (as-if car makers were actually good at that ever). So I'm wondering what does Ford think will happen by introducing Amazon's Alexa into it's cars?
Click to expand...

Not really an opponent. They just don't want them to be the only options available. Consumers and car manufacturers certainly won't profit from giving all the "power" to Apple and Google. It's always good to keep the market open.

We also don't know what kind of deal they made with amazon.
 
Nozuka said:
Not really an opponent. They just don't want them to be the only options available. Consumers and car manufacturers certainly won't profit from giving all the "power" to Apple and Google. It's always good to keep the market open.

We also don't know what kind of deal they made with amazon.
Click to expand...

The mission of the SDL group is to ween car makers away from CarPlay to a true open source connection kit. It's not an additional option to CarPlay and Google Auto, it's meant to be an alternative option to them. At the moment Ford is playing both sides because it doesn't want to turn off customers. Toyota OTOH is being much bolder in that regard. But it's Ford's goal to eventually dump CarPlay and GoogleAuto for its own interface design.

I have no chips in this game, just observing and puzzled that Ford is wary of Apple and Google but somehow not Amazon. No, I do not know what kind of current deal Ford has with Amazon but the point is it's not about the current deal, it's about when Alexa-in-Car gets enough traction that Amazon can start calling many of the shots on interface just like Apple does with CarPlay. Then Ford is back at Square One with having an interface overlord it was trying to rid itself of.
 
BuffaloTF said:
Maybe because it doesn't do that at all and only listens for a trigger word locally? But ya know... facts.
Click to expand...

Weaselboy said:
That is not how it works.
Click to expand...

I've been a computer forensic expert for more than 12 years, traveled the world to train law enforcement, spoken about it at countless conferences including MacWorld, helped to design industry-standard tools used by all major law enforcement in the US and around the world, but yes, I'm sure you're the expert here. Tell yourself everything is fine and your conversations aren't recorded, if it makes you feel better.

This case is not the first, nor will it be the last, in which Alexa data is used
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-amazon-echo-privacy-qa-20170105-story.html
 
  • Like
Reactions: aaroman
OldSchoolMacGuy said:
I've been a computer forensic expert for more than 12 years, traveled the world to train law enforcement, spoken about it at countless conferences including MacWorld, helped to design industry-standard tools used by all major law enforcement in the US and around the world, but yes, I'm sure you're the expert here. Tell yourself everything is fine and your conversations aren't recorded, if it makes you feel better.

This case is not the first, nor will it be the last, in which Alexa data is used
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-amazon-echo-privacy-qa-20170105-story.html
Click to expand...

You do realize in this murder case, it was only a subpoena? And in this case, and any others where they want to waste taxpayer money on dragging out a court case, nothing will be there to provide... right? Which is precisely what your article, and every other article on this, says...

If it was always recording, which it isn't, surely you know with all your data forensic experience that they'd simply pull it off the device itself, which they have access to. Instead they're asking Amazon to give them the recordings... which also don't exist, unless the victim screamed out "Alexa, Colonel Mustard is killing me in the library with the candle stick!"

Derp.

And since you're such an expert with such worldly credentials, how's about a LinkedIn link?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Weaselboy
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back