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