Amazon Echo Auto (2nd Gen) review
The Amazon Echo Auto (2nd Gen) brings Alexa to the car with a simple setup, but doesn't really answer the fundamental question: "Why?"
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Scores
- Design: 8/10
- Performance: 5.5/10
- Overall: 6.8/10
Pros
- Simple plug and play design
- Relatively affordable
- Microphone picks up Alexa keyword easily
Cons
- Does nothing better than Siri or Google Assistant
- Navigation requires activation on your phone, so it's not hands-free
- Callers found it hard to hear when using the mic while driving
Car manufacturers have put a lot of time and effort into finding the best ways to integrate smartphones into their cars.
For Amazon, that poses something of a problem. While the retail giant is a market leader in the digital assistant area with Alexa, it doesn’t offer its own brand of phone.
So how does Amazon introduce Alexa to the automotive experience? With the Amazon Echo Auto (2nd Gen) device. It’s a small, cabled microphone that plugs into your car for power and then connects wirelessly to your smartphone to give your car Alexa capabilities.
A big question, then, is what Alexa brings to the in-car experience that you can’t get from the likes of Google Assistant or apples Siri. The answer, sadly, is not much.
