The most utile place for a voice - activated digital assistant is n’t your office , kitchen , or living elbow room . It ’s in your car , where your hand and optic should be pre - fill with drive . So Garmin put Amazon ’s Alexa in a new bare - bones navigation equipment that will ascertain you ’ll never get lost , and never get solitary , on a longsighted driving .
Last calendar month , BMW announced that it would be one of the first automakers to contain Amazon ’s digital assistant into its vehicles , some time in 2018 . But the cheapest BMW will cost you $ 30,000 , while Garmin ’s raw Speak is $ 150 , and it can be installed in the vehicle you already own , or any vehicle that has a windscreen and exponent access code .
you could already sort of memory access Amazon ’s Alexa from your railcar , either by using its Io or Android app , or by mountingone of Amazon ’s minor Echo speakersto your dashboard and turn your smartphone into a wi - fi hotspot . Those are n’t very good option , and the compact Garmin Speak , which looks like a palm - sized miniature version of the Amazon Echo , makes it much prosperous to bring Alexa along for a driveway , with the sum up benefit of Garmin ’s extremely - regarded navigation capability .
All images: Andrew Liszewski/Gizmodo
Installing the Garmin Speak is light enough , just need you to stick an adhesive magnetized mount to your windscreen so the unit can be easily removed and re - committed . What ’s a little harder is routing its exponent cable so it does n’t impede the number one wood ’s view . Garmin recommends course it around the edge of your windscreen by tucking the cord into the palisade furrow , but that did n’t run in my fomite so the Speak ’s powerfulness cord simply hang down onto the dashboard . Including a couple of adhesive magazine to assist substantially hold and route the Speak ’s cable would have been more helpful .
The include power transmission line plugs into your gondola ’s cigarette lighter , and admit an AUX jackstones so you could route audio from the Speak through your machine ’s effectual system if it does n’t have wireless capability . But since the gadget rely on your smartphone for both GPS and mobile cyberspace , include an extra USB port on this fireplug would have made it easier for drivers , especially those in older vehicle , to keep their smartphones charge at the same time .
Once the Speak has been associate to your smartphone over Bluetooth , via an play along Garmin app , and you ’ve deploy the new Garmin Alexa skill , you may start interacting with Alexa just as you would using one of the Echo speakers . That includes get at any medium you have sitting on Amazon ’s server which can be played through your vehicle ’s healthy scheme , or through the Speak ’s own midget speaker , which sound kind of awful and is really only idealistic for playing back Alexa ’s responses .
Using the Speak as a GPS machine can be all done through voice commands . But it is n’t contextual . You require to remember to always say , “ Alexa , need Garmin to … ” when it comes to asking anything navigation - related , which I found wanton to forget during my day of testing . And rather of a scrolling function , direction are provided using a combination of voice prompts , and a round-eyed black and white OLED display showing directional arrows and distances . A unclouded - up LED ring , which is also used as a visual representation of Alexa fundamental interaction , will beam green when it ’s sentence for you to give tending and make a specific maneuver .
Even with Alexa ’s ever - growing intelligence service , trying to find a specific destination was occasionally hard using just voice command . When you bump yourself pose too foiled , you could always come out start the Garmin Speak app to manually search and find the place you ’re looking for — but that requires you to pull over and stop if you ’re a law - abiding automobilist .
Havingtested all kinds of GPS devicesover the class , I did n’t guess the simplicity of the Speak would countenance it to be as effective a navigation tool as devices that use an on - covert single-valued function . But aside from one incident where the Speak directed me onto , then off , and then back onto an expensive toll route , I was surprised at how useable the equipment was .
Yet I also hate that you have to ask Alexa to then ask Garmin to do anything nav - tie in — it ’s an extra gradation that I distrust most will often leave to expend , even after using the Speak for a while . It just does n’t feel innate , and it ( plus the Leontyne Price tag ) will believably be a big difference between the Speak and BMW ’s upcoming Alexa desegregation .
Who is the Garmin Speak for ? Mostly mass who intemperately swear on Amazon and Alexa for their quotidian act . If you ’ve altogether buy into the Amazon eco - system , include euphony subscriptions and shopping , then having Alexa easy accessible from your railroad car while you commute to and from work will for certain be useful .
If the Speak were priced at $ 100 or less , I would be tempt to advocate it as a cheap solution for smartphone owner want a consecrate navigation equipment in their railway car . But at $ 150 , it ’s priced similar to Garmin ’s chintzy touchscreen navigation gimmick , and as fun as having Alexa along for the ride is , she is n’t necessary for finding the closest gasoline station , or the quickest road to grandma ’s .
[ Garmin ]
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