Amazon Echo Auto Vs Google Assistant in Your Car
Car audio and entertainment technology has moved forward in leaps and bounds in the past decade, most of it having to do with connecting smartphone technology to in-dash audio receivers. Carmakers have rushed to embrace receivers equipped Apple CarPlay and Android Auto technologies, touting the ability of drivers to access their phonesā music players, maps, and other popular apps on their dashboard touchscreen. Perhaps more importantly, they make it possible to interact with these apps using voice commands, engaging digital assistants such as Appleās Siri, and Google Assistant to ask for directions or change the music without ever having to take their eyes off the road.
Sensing opportunity, a number of manufacturers have introduced new devices intended to bring voice command capability to cars outfitted with outdated technologies. For example, if a car stereo predates Bluetooth and USB connectivity altogether, it canāt interact with a smartphone at all on its own. Thatās why devices such as the Anker Roav Bolt and Amazon Echo Auto feature auxiliary outputs to connect by wire to a receiverās input. Simply put, your phone and its apps communicate directly to the device through USB or Bluetooth, allowing you to access Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to control the phone. The phoneās audio output then travels through the auxiliary cable to play on the car speakers.
Since there are no such devices for Apple Carplay, we are left with the question: is an android phone user better off looking at a Google Assistant car device, or installing Amazon Alexa in their car?
While Android Auto and Apple CarPlay have become standard features in a new generation of car stereo receivers, making Google Assistant and Siri the two standard bearers of voice commands in cars, a third major player in digital assistant tech has been left out. While the Amazon Echo has made its Alexa digital assistant quite common in homes across the country, you wonāt find car receivers programmed to bring Amazon Alexa in car. For die-hard fans, that means the only way to bring Alexa on the road is the Amazon Echo Auto device, designed to sit atop your dashboard and interface with your phone through a downloadable app. Microphones built in to the Amazon Echo Auto allow voice commands to operate all the major digital streaming services and navigation apps on your phone, and transfers the audio output back to your car stereoās speakers. Because youād be using a third party app to operate your phoneās operating system, if youāre not already a seasoned Alexa user, itās not the best choice for you.
Google Assistant Car Devices
Googleās Android operating system, on the other hand, has wider reach, and itās now compatible many brands of audio receiver. By adding a Google Assistant car device such as Anker Roav Bolt or JBL Link Drive to your pre-USB car audio system, youāll be able to access your phone via voice command speaking its own language, so to speak. Both devices plug into a carās cigarette lighter, and feature USB connections in addition to auxiliary output, allow you the option to charge your phone while in use, in addition to issuing Google Assistant commands, and playing audio through your car speakers. However, that USB connection may be the only true advantage over simply plugging your phoneās audio output into the car receiverās auxiliary input and speaking directly to your phone istead, skipping the middleman.Ā
The best bang for your buck
If youāre desperate to add voice command tech to your car for low cost, using these devices to bring Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa to your car will work, similar to the way auxiliary tape deck adapters once allowed external CD players to connect to car stereos lacking auxiliary inputs. But just like that janky workaround, theyāre at best a bridge solution requiring you to clutter your ride with ugly devices and tangling cables. It hardly seems worth it when you can spend just a bit more to replace your outdated car receiver with one that knows how to speak with your smartphone, and better yet, knows how to listen.
Contact us today at (619) 474-8551 to discuss the best way to bring voice command technology to your ride.
