Language assistant
Auto group Stellantis brings Amazon’s Alexa into the cockpit
Stellantis includes brands such as Chrysler, Opel and Fiat. Photo: Carlos Osorio / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
With Peugeot, Opel or Fiat, a familiar voice could soon be heard behind the steering wheel. The parent company Stellantis wants to make the language assistant available in the cars.
Amazon can secure a more prominent place in millions of future vehicles through a deal with auto giant Stellantis.
The group with brands like Peugeot, Chrysler, Fiat and Opel wants among other things Amazons Embed the voice assistant Alexa in his new digital cockpit, as the companies announced on Wednesday at the technology fair CES in Las Vegas.
For the world’s largest online retailer, it is a success in the race with, among others, Google for a place in the car. The Internet group is also trying to reach its users in the car, among other things with the Alexa competitor Google Assistant. With the deal, Amazon also secures business for its cloud service division AWS, which Stellantis vehicles will use.
The car company had already got support from the Chinese contract manufacturer Foxconn, which is best known as a manufacturer of Apple devices, for the development of its digital cockpit. The cooperation with Amazon should build on this partnership.
In another agreement, Amazon will be the first to buy Stellantis’ Ram ProMaster electric delivery vans, which are due to hit the market in 2023. Amazon wants to put “thousands” of vehicles on the road in the US every year, it said. The online retailer has so far relied primarily on the US start-up Rivian to electrify its fleet. Amazon announced that it would buy around 100,000 electric Rivian delivery vans over the years and also invested around 20 percent in the company.
The deal with Amazon also shows how many alliances are being forged between automakers and tech companies, regardless of possible rivalries. Stellantis is already working with Google’s sister company Waymo on the development of Robotaxi, while Amazon has its own developer of technology for autonomous driving in-house with the takeover of the start-up Zoox.