General Motors Embraces Alexa

Consumers are entering an era where the home and the vehicle begin to merge, and General Motors plans to make that transition as seamless as possible. The automotive manufacturer announced that it will be integrating all vehicles with Amazon’s Alexa.

General Motor’s electronics platform already offers voice recognition to operate in-vehicle functions, but the company gets that some customers would rather use the system they’re most familiar with. For many, that’s Alexa. An over-the-air update slated to roll out over the first half of 2020 will bring Alexa skills into vehicles produced in 2018 and onward, as long as its equipped with a compatible infotainment system.

The planned software update means drivers will be able to use natural language to ask Alexa to perform many of the same tasks that IntelliLink (or MyLink or Cue) would, such as getting navigation directions to addresses, playing their favorite music, or making calls with bluetooth connected phones. It also makes available the thousands of Alexa skills they use at home, such as adding things to your shopping list or placing your regular order at Starbucks.

The integration will still require internet connectivity to use Alexa and access content in your Amazon cloud library, either through the embedded WiFi hotspot or piggybacking off your mobile phone. This could give consumers more of a reason to subscribe to a WiFi data plan through OnStar.

General Motors announced earlier this month that it will build in Google Assistant to its vehicles starting in 2021. However, it will have one advantage over Amazon: it’s own Maps app.