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I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful.

It's a sign of how broken and far behind automobile tech is that Alexa was first developed for the kitchen and not the car.

Voice commands on car entertainment systems was available all the way back in 2008, albeit in a $120k car (Lexus LS600h L).

And you can buy the Echo Dot, which I'm willing to guess works so much better that it might as well be in a different category, for $90.

It was available in 2009 in a fairly cheap Ford sedan.

Microsoft Sync got a lot of shit because from what I've heard, the touchscreen version was a total mess, but the voice only version before that in my car's been pretty solid.

>> It's a sign of how broken and far behind automobile tech is that Alexa was first developed for the kitchen and not the car

> Voice commands on car entertainment systems was available all the way back in 2008, albeit in a $120k car

Voice command entertainment system are available in your run-of-the-mill $14k car nowadays. 2016 Ford Fiesta S model has Sync 3 voice command system built in.

Meh. I've never used one of these car systems, but without any knowledge at all I can confidently say that the experience and capabilities come nowhere near matching Alexa. Totally different products.

I'd love to be wrong. But I doubt I am.

Alexa helps Amazon encourage you to buy more products. I don't see how that would actually be appropriate embedded in an automobile.

I use my Echo every day and never once to buy a product. I use it to get sports scores, hear the news, check the weather, check my calendar, get answers to simple questions, play music (across multiple services), and so on.

There is actually no more suitable place imaginable for performing those functions by voice than behind the wheel. I don't want a replacement for the dials on my dashboard. I want the breadth of services Alexa provides.

To call Alexa "voice commands" is to diminish it beyond recognition.

> how broken and far behind automobile tech is

Because it is controlled by car companies. Software solutions for Automobiles have been around for a very long time. Lots of grassroots entrepreneurs have made attempts, but there is so much friction at the automobile level, that innovation literally is slow and frustrating.

I do not know too much about the culture there, but from the stories I gather from the people who work there, management is very smug about industry position, engineers are not very tech oriented, it's engineering heavy, software light, and have a mentality of tech-is-cool-and-useless.

Management and leadership are not very focused on integrating on these cool useless tech objects. And they have other focuses.

Exactly. And the bar they set for themselves is frustratingly low. Case in point: [Subaru's new "tablet-like" infotainment interface](http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/5/7982525/in-car-navigation-s...).

>I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful

Well presumably you take one hand off the wheel or have a really long tongue?

There are active Apple Watch users who use their nose ;-)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/nosy-apple-watch-users-discover-...

I'm an apple watch user but I've not perfected the schnozz technique.

Haha. No, believe it or not both my hands are on the wheel and I use my finger to tap on the screen. Kind of a 11:30 and 1:00 position - no tongue involved.

That still does not sound it would validate to investment? A 10 dollar bluetooth earplug does not vibrate but aurally guides you. And at least on my car (2016 C-Class) after pairing you can skips songs via the steering wheel.

The subtle vibration and the ability to glance at the next instruction are pretty helpful. An ear bud is just going to make the voice louder than on my phone or when connected to my car audio. The point is, I'm usually not waiting to listen the next instruction and usually listening to music instead. Without the watch I usually miss the instruction or part of it then have to take my eyes off the road. Like I said, the feature is subtle but well done imo.

Also 2016 C-Class is probably not a good investment if that's your killer feature ;-)

Seriously though, some of us are frugal and won't spend our money on new cars. Bluetooth connectivity is nice but not really worth the investment in a vehicle if you already own one in good repair. A watch is orders of magnitude cheaper.

Why not just mount your phone up in a visible place, turn off audio nav, and leave it in car mode? If you're unfamiliar with the place, surely the map overview is helpful, especially in nontrivial lane/turn scenarios.

I get that the vibration is useful to tell you to pay attention, and maybe current map software can't just provide a quick ping sound without screwing up music playback. But I'm not sure why glancing down at your hands is a good idea.

Yeah I have one of those phone mount things too and Waze is running on the phone with Maps in the background to shout the audio instructions. The pre instruction vibration is great for just that reason, to tell me to pay attention. Usually a few minutes after the most recent instruction I zone out, so when I'm glancing down at the watch I'm looking for mileage until the next instruction.

Also, sometimes I play Slacker radio from the phone too, which the phone does a decent job of interrupting the music and speaking the instruction for.

Also I have the Automatic OBD plug which audibly alerts me when I'm speeding and a bidirectional dash camera that fits over my mirror, you know just in case an accident or something.

Hmm, after writing all this out I'm thinking I might have over done it with car gadgets.

'Frugal' means different things to people with varying preferences--to me, buying an Apple Watch isn't frugal. Even if you're frugal, pretty much every car that doesn't have Bluetooth A2DP has at least an AUX input, and the ones that don't can either add one as a CD changer emulator or have a tape deck (and thus can use a cassette adapter). Pop in a $13 Bluetooth A2DP adapter on the end, mount your phone on the dash or windshield, and boom, you can stream music while car nav interrupts only when it has something to say. Much cheaper and better solution than a vibrating watch.

I sold my Apple Watch a few months ago, but I thoroughly enjoyed this feature. It would subtly vibrate just before you needed to turn and with kids making noise in the car, the vibration was better than listening for "turn now!".

I now have a Microsoft Band 2 and with Google Maps I get the same functionality, so it turns out I didn't lose anything by selling my Apple Watch.

"Again useful during driving, I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful."

I feel like that's significantly less important nowadays, with literally every single new car offering bluetooth connectivity and music controls directly on the wheel, you can use them without even looking.

Really? I found having my watch constantly buzzing on the steering wheel incredibly jarring. There is no substitute for a dashboard mount - directions should be a quick visual scan away, not a "let me take my hand off the wheel, raise my watch, scroll down to the dismiss button, and press it." Google Maps was the first set of notifications I disabled, with vigorous prejudice.

Not sure what you mean about raising the watch and scrolling. On the Apple watch you get a series of short buzzes for a left turn and long buzzes for a right turn. There's no looking, scrolling, or dismissing necessary.

Sorry, but encouraged to take my eyes off the road especially away from the typical line of sight used while driving? no thank you.

I can have my phone talk to me when driving and tell me when to turn. There are so many mounts available I can put it anywhere.

Besides, if its killer app is GPS there is something seriously wrong with other apps then.

Me, when it becomes my phone I will be happy. As in, when its not a slave device.