The latest cars from Jag and Land Rover will let you talk to Alexa through them, meaning smart home control may well be possible from the road.
Now that the smart home has become a thing people have embraced, we’re seeing more controls handed over to the owners of said smart homes. Whether you rent or own your property, if you have smart gear inside your home, you can very likely control it using your phone, smart speaker, or smart display.
Smart gear in your home is typically gadgets like net-connected lighting and appliances, speakers, security cameras, and may even be a door lock that talks to these devices, allowing you to check on the status by calling out for Siri, Google, or Amazon’s Alexa.
Often, you’ll be at home for this, but you mightn’t need to, and could actually make the call within your own car, at least with what Jaguar Land Rover has been working on, specifically building a version of Alexa for Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.
It’s an Australian first, we’re told, with Amazon Alexa rolling out to the Pivi Pro system in select cars by Jaguar and Land Rover, making it possible to call out for Alexa to hear the news, make calls, read messages, and even control those smart home devices at home while you’re in the car, all thanks to a connection to your phone and that system.
Jaguar Land Rover says the update will be rolled out as an over-the-air update for supported models, with 6100 Land Rover owners in Australia and 1300 Jag owners locally affected by the update, rolled out by QR code and a phone. New models from Jaguar and Land Rover should see the technology, including Jaguar’s electric model, the I-Pace, while Land Rover models include the Defender, Discovery Sport, new Discovery, plus Range Rover’s Velar and Evoque.
As to when other cars will see smart assistants, that is anyone’s guess, but at least the tech is gradually driving on up to our shores.
