Expanded internet technology allows drivers to talk to their cars

FORD is expanding the use of Amazon.com Inc’s Alexa personal assistant in its vehicles to allow drivers to talk to their cars – a leap by the Detroit car maker to incorporate a technology initially targeted for home use.

With the technology in a vehicle, the driver can demand anything from a nearby cheeseburger to a weather forecast.

The expanding alliance between Ford and Amazon, announced at the CES tech show in Las Vegas this week, underscores the importance to both car makers and internet commerce companies of connecting consumers on the move to a richer array of digital services.

Ford connected vehicle and services executive director Don Butler said the technology was the deepest integration of any original equipment manufacturer inside a vehicle with Alexa.

The two firms were in talks on how to take the Alexa partnership further, Butler said.

“Digital assistant is a tool that is increasingly prevalent,” he said.

Rival General Motors plans to roll out IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence software in its OnStar system to market services to drivers in their cars.

Similarly, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz will use Alphabet Inc’s Google Assistant, a rival product, to let car owners interact with their vehicles from home via Google Home.

Ford’s move follows an announcement in October that it would use Alexa in three models to allow drivers to communicate with their smart home devices, such as heaters, lights or security systems.

Gartner research director Michael Ramsey said personal assistants were being studied by every major car maker.

“There’s a lot of vetting going on,” he said.

One company that stands to benefit is Nuance Communications. The supplier to Ford, GM and other car makers provides natural language speech command technology to allow drivers to speak more or less conversationally to digital assistants.

One decision car manufacturers must make is whether to use smart systems already in use – Apple Inc’s CarPlay or Google’s Android Auto – or a third option. By using their own systems, car makers can retain full control of valuable data that otherwise could be captured by Apple and Google from vehicles.

At present, personal assistants are enabled using either phones as their mode of connectivity, such as at Ford, or through modems built directly into vehicles, as GM and the German car makers have done.