Echo Auto - Adding Alexa to Your Car
7So I got an email today from Amazon letting me know that my request for an invitation to purchase Echo Auto has been granted. Woo hoo! Feeling special, I ordered one at half the retail list for $24.99 because I’m a sucker for gadgets. Checking the specs after I placed my order, it looks like it will use the Alexa app on my phone via Bluetooth. Since I don’t have an unlimited data plan, I wouldn’t want to waste my precious minutes on Alexa in the car. Seems like you could do most of the Alexa stuff without this device if your car has Bluetooth, but maybe not so on demand. Do any of you Mehtizens have one of these things and if so do you like it? Surprised they are selling on eBay for list price and up, not that I looked or anything.
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I’ve had one for a couple of months now and love it! Have unlimited data, though, so I use the heck outta it.
Also an unlimited data user.
IMO Auto Alexa really brings out the shortcomings of Alexa vs Google assistant. I got it primarily so I could do navigation without having to type it all in; but the few times I can get it to work then it only uses google maps and not Waze. (It’s just a semi awkward phrase that takes more effort to remember just to open the wrong app and then take the 10 minutes for it to find the right place - it ends up just being easier to open Waze and do it right the first time)
It’s not very good at answering random questions.
If you use it for music via the app then it doesn’t transfer/talk to to the auto so you can’t continue what you were playing in the app unless you use the app to control the music and when you’re doing that… what’s the use of the gadget?
@kalma I need to go back and read what it does just in case my offer ever comes through. Thanks, I may not buy one after all. I use a Tap now and it probably does pretty much the same thing.
@kalma @sammydog01 I would guess what it does is suck
@kalma @unksol BUT IT’S HALF PRICE!!!
@kalma @sammydog01 is that bad?
@kalma @sammydog01 a half price suck. Idk if it’s good or bad
@sammydog01 This new Echo thingy is for use in the car and you attach it to the air vent. I also have a Tap and use it in my home, but it’s kind of big for the car.
@heartny The Tap fits perfectly in a cup holder.
@sammydog01 Good point
Still will have a limited data issue though.
@heartny Yeah, I have unlimited data but I hate to keep my phone running bluetooth all the time. Sometimes I dump music and audiobooks onto a crappy Fire 7 tablet- it doesn’t listen to me but it’s close enough. I also go a lot of places with limited reception. But I do like my Tap in the car.
I would only be interested if it has a cloaking shield I could evoke when there were speed traps around. Or in the parking lot where I live since thieves are having a good time here recently.
@Kidsandliz You haven’t been setting out enough bags of ice I see.
Just the Alexa bit can’t possibly use much data. Hardly any I’d speculate. So if you’re gonna use it just as a voice command interface to access stuff you already do in the car, you won’t really notice any significant increase in data consumption. If Alexa drags you into new territories of automobile entertainment, obvs that’s a different deal. But just the general Alexa interaction (time, weather, traffic, information queries) use minuscule bits and bytes.
@ruouttaurmind You make me buy too much stuff. SEND ME THE OFFER ALREADY AMAZON!
When I signed up to be invited, I drove a 2006 car with little built-in smarts. The Amazon Echo Auto would have been perfect for streaming music and asking stupid questions on the road. Now, my vehicle has smart features when I connect my phone via USB (google assistant, google maps, amazon music, etc)
I passed on the invite as I do not need it. Too late, Amazon!
Someone on this thread:
Just to sit idle, it probably uses around 120MB per month.
This was based upon a normal in-home Alexa, but there’s not much reason to believe the auto version is much different.
Of course, the device in your car likely spends a lot more time powered off, but I don’t actually know.
Also, Amazon sucks. Alexa sucks. That’s my personal opinion, not that of anyone in the thread I mentioned.
@Limewater Also possibly interesting:
Streaming audio will probably use more data than you expect.
@Limewater Don’t talk that way about my friend Alexa. Some days she’s the only one who answers me.
@Limewater @sammydog01 She is one of my only friends. And mine is a dirty girl, so I love her.
@Limewater @mfladd If only they had a male Alexa voice like that sexy Hey Google…
@Limewater @sammydog01 I really wanted to change mine to the English accent Alexa. She’d be even hotter then. But if you do you lose a lot of things like ordering. Also certain skills will not work unless you use the voice for your country.
@Limewater @sammydog01
you should get a google home and a homepod and a Harman Kardon Invoke . this way you have 3 more friends in your house that answer you
@heartny if you change your mind i will buy it off of you and i will pay for shipping too
i got the invite while on vacation , it expires after a week and i didnt see the email until a month later
@communist I’ll keep you posted. Hasn’t arrived yet. Should be here soon, unless the Porch Pirates get it first.
I didn’t see my invite until the day after it expired. That was probably a month ago. I signed up for a new one but am waiting still. Although I’m not really sure how badly I want one. My main use case for Alexa is turning on and off lights. I hopefully won’t be doing much of that while driving.
@djslack its a 8 microphone array for your car.
so even if the weather is bad and you are blasting RAP music at full volume, you can still issue command and take phone calls where they can actually hear you very well
Seems odd that Amazon is so stingy handing these things out. Gotta be due to it being released to the public whilst still a beta device.
They’re not even allowing reviews on the Echo Auto page.
This is a better choice for an Alexa enabled device for your car. Garmin Speak Plus With Amazon Alexa. At least it’s a dash cam as well.
Features-wise what’s the difference between the Echo Auto and the Echo Dot (or Echo Input)? I have an extra dot I’ve been meaning to put in the car…
I had a dot in my car for a while using an old cell phone as a hotspot with a spare phone line that I used to have.
The best thing (IMHO) about this was the ability to say, “Alexa, play classic rock everywhere” and have the same music in the living room, bedroom, basement and car. Of course, if someone said “Alexa, play pop everywhere” at home while I was driving to work, I’d get shitty music for my drive, so not all that great in reality.
The most recent IQ test for these things has Google being significantly “smarter” (ie. less likely to fuck up) than Alexa and Siri. If nothing else, the test’s methodology is interesting.
@carl669