At CES 2018, Toyota announced that it will begin integrating Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant into some of its vehicles including Lexus, so drivers can tell their cars to play music or set a comfortable temperature at home before arriving.
“Voice services are rapidly becoming more popular and through our integration with Amazon Alexa, Toyota and Lexus customers will soon be able to easily speak to Alexa in their cars while on-the-go,” Toyota Motor North America chief information officer Zack Hicks said in a statement.
The company said that Alexa would be available in some Toyota and Lexus cars that come with the Entune and Enform infotainment software. In choosing Alexa over rival Google Assistant, Toyota Connected CEO Zack Hicks says Amazon is the right partner as Toyota studies what future mobility might look like.
The integration will start later this year. Toyota didn’t say which car models will have it. Ford and Hyundai are among the auto companies already supporting Alexa. Hicks says there’s nothing preventing Toyota from partnering with others in the future.
