The SEAT Ateca and Leon will soon have Alexa as a co-pilot

Curtis Moldrich Read more December 8, 2017

Helpful AIs are everywhere, and now they’re more powerful – and useful – than ever. Services such as Amazon Alexa are designed to merge with your daily household activities and make your life easier – and soon they’re coming to your car.

The SEAT Ateca and Leon will soon have Alexa as a co-pilot

At September’s Frankfurt Motor Show, SEAT announced it would be adding Alexa – a leading voice service – to its Ateca and Leon models from the end of the year. It’s one of the first times Amazon’s voice service has ever been integrated into an affordable car, and it’s bringing a new level of convenience to your driving experience.

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So who is Alexa anyway?

Alexa is a digital voice service developed by Amazon, one of the largest online retailers in the world. The product of years of development and countless amounts of R&D, Alexa is designed to be the ultimate digital companion.

Right now, Alexa is available in devices like the Echo Dot, and she can perform a variety of functions that improve your daily home life. For example, Alexa’s powerful artificial intelligence can help you find that song you suddenly want to hear, work out the weather – and even look up things on Wikipedia.

But Amazon’s AI creation isn’t just about entertainment; she’s there to help with the more mundane tasks, too. From giving you a hand with alarms and timers, to managing to-do lists and controlling your home’s lighting systems – Alexa can help you in all kinds of ways.

However, the best and most exciting thing about Alexa is just how easy the service is to use. Because it’s been honed to perfection by Amazon, Alexa can understand simple phrases, so you don’t need to memorise weird instructions or commands like other voice recognition systems. The result? Alexa is extremely useful in the kitchen or the study, but can come into her own when you’re driving.

How many times on every journey do you have to fiddle with your car’s sound system, just to find that track you want to listen to? And how many times have you had to mess with countless buttons to change the destination on your satnav?

Those are the small, inconvenient things that make driving a little less fun, and can also be distracting. Every time you look at your stereo or your infotainment system, you’re not looking at the road – and Alexa can help.

By talking to Alexa instead of searching for buttons, you’ll be able to concentrate on your environment more, and also reduce the amount of time your eyes are off the road.

Soon, Alexa will help SEAT drivers manage their schedule, easily locate points of interest or get real-time news updates. And because Alexa is developed by Amazon, it uses the cloud, and strict safety protocols that ensure your data remains private.

If you’re looking to step into the future, and maximise your time at home, it’s worth checking out one of Amazon’s amazing Echo smart speakers. And if you want to bring that same level of convenience and productivity to every car journey, you’ll want to check out the SEAT Ateca and Leon.

Discover more about the SEAT and Amazon Alexa integration