GM Cars to Get Amazon Alexa Connectivity (and Possibly Samuel L. Jackson’s Voice)
GM announced that select 2018 and newer model-year vehicles will be receiving Amazon Alexa connectivity, allowing occupants to have Alexa read the news, turn on or off home smart devices, play a specific song, add a destination to the in-car navigation, place a call and more. All that’s required is a compatible infotainment system that allows for over-the-air updates via in-car 4G LTE service. The automaker — brands of which include Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC — says it will also be able to add custom skills to Alexa tailored to the individual vehicle.
Related: Hey, Alexa! What Cars Can I Talk to With My Amazon Echo?
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GM plans to roll out the feature to cars sometime in the first half of 2020 — convenient timing considering Amazon announced that Samuel L. Jackson will be the first celebrity voice of Alexa available to consumers sometime later this year. Using “neural text-to-speech,” Alexa will be able to mimic Jackson’s iconic voice — with his permission, of course. The upgrade will cost 99 cents, though reports are unclear if that’s for Jackson’s voice alone or a catalog of yet-to-be-named additional celebrities.
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There’s no definitive word that this feature will make it to any in-car Alexa services, be it from GM or another manufacturer, but you have to hope so, right? Wouldn’t it be nice to be driving along and have Samuel L. Jackson ask you which m*********in’ song you want to play?
The future is great!
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