Review: Amazon Echo Auto puts Alexa in the passenger seat

Sometimes a tech product can leave me bemused as much as amused.

You'll need to love Alexa to want Echo Auto.

Sometimes a tech product can leave you bemused as much as amused. If you love Amazon’s personal assistant Alexa in your home, I can understand you might really want her by your side as you drive around the burbs. But I fear it has to be love with a capital “L”.

Amazon’s Echo Auto little black box lets you issue Alexa commands from your car, not just while at home. You can ask Alexa to perform the same tasks you would at home, such as read you news, manage your shopping list, and calendar entries. It play tracks from Amazon Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio and TuneIn – once these are enabled as skills in the Amazon Alexa app.

Echo Auto also extends smart control of your home devices into your car, so you can command Alexa to switch on and off certain lights, a smart air conditioner or a robot vacuum cleaner while you are on the road.

I tested smart home control by observing my living room lights switch on and off through home security cameras as I used Alexa commands from the car.

Note that some home automation systems can switch devices on and off automatically using the location of your phone without even needing voice commands. This is a matter of setting up automated routines.

Echo Auto itself is tiny – 8.5cm x 4.7cm x 1.3cm high, lightweight at 45 grams, and has two buttons on top – a microphone on/off button to stop Alexa eavesdropping on your car conversations, an action button you can press instead of saying “Alexa”, a microUSB port for charging and a 3.5mm audio port for headphones or an external speaker.

You shouldn’t need to use an external speaker if your car has a reasonably modern entertainment system with Bluetooth. Output can be pumped through there.

Amazon says the device has eight built-in microphones, presumably to ensure it picks up your voice commands with music playing. I tested this and found that Echo Auto often would miss me saying “Alexa stop” if the music was playing loudly; the alternative is to press the action button to gain Alexa’s attention.

Installation is simple enough. You connect Echo Auto to your car cigarette lighter power outlet using the supplied microUSB to USB-A cable and supplied car adaptor. Note that the unit doesn’t run on battery.

You install Echo Auto as part of your smart home network using the Alexa app on your iOS or Android phone. Alexa remains a cloud service, so Echo Auto has to be Bluetooth-connected to your phone to operate. It’s not a stand-alone device.

Amazon Echo Auto.

Further, the Amazon Echo app has to be running on your phone in the car. The ducks certainly have to line up for this system to work.

If you set it up properly, the music Alexa streams comes through your car entertainment system speakers. I have retrofitted an entertainment/video system on my ancient 1998 Maza 121 hatch and it works a treat.

Amazon supplies a magnetic mount for tethering Echo Auto to a dashboard air vent. You will need an air outlet with either vertical or horizontal vents for this to work. Frankly, I am cautious about tethering devices via air vent mounts because they could conduct heat to the device if your heater is on full blast. I tend to avoid this.

The alternative is to place the Echo Auto in a storage compartment on the dash, or between the two front seats. It’s small and barely takes up room. But remember, it needs to be tethered to power at all times.

When you open the Alexa app in your car, it asks whether you are the passenger. You can always answer ‘yes’, but there is a safety risk if you are carrying on more complex discussions with Alex such as composing a shopping list while driving. It might be okay if requests are relatively simple, such as asking Alexa to turn on a light or play a track, but nothing more.

In my view, it is a matter of time before road law starts to address the general issue of more new-age distractions while driving, beyond current law which is concerned about handling your phone while driving.

The big reservation I have about Echo Auto is whether you need it at all.

I can already access Siri on an iPhone and she can interact with me in the car and even access my car speakers without needing any other device apart from my phone. The same would apply for an Android phone. Many cars provide Apple CarPlay or Android Auto anyway.

You can ask Siri or the Google Assistant to make calls, provide turn-by-turn directions and play music directly through your phone without another device.

In that respect, Echo Auto tries to make up for Amazon not being a major handset provider or in-car entertainment provider. The device gives Alexa some mobile relevance.

However some operations can be clumsy. Alexa in the car can give you turn-by-turn directions, but instead of this happening automatically, she sends a notification to your phone which you manually activate to get the Maps program to open under Alexa’s control.

Why bother with this if your car has an in-built navigation system, or your Android or iOS phone can offer this directly?

Still, if you really want Alexa available as you travel, you’ll need this device as Alexa doesn’t answer your commands on a phone if you simply have the Alexa app open. For anyone else, I don’t see a need for Echo Auto.

Echo Auto is available in Australia for $79 on amazon.com.au.