My car doesn't have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. In fact, the whole area of in-car smart gadgetry is a bit of a glaring blank spot in my CV of tech know-how.

I think this is down to two main factors; because my car was made in 2014, it was probably right on the cusp of when automakers really started doubling down on introducing smart features into the mix. The explosion in EV manufacturing to follow shortly after only accelerated the demand for more and more IoT interaction and of course nowadays many vehicles feature what is effectively a full-sized tablet built into the middle of their dashboards.

The second reason my car has remained relatively 20th-century in terms of tech toys is that I drive like a nana. Call me old-fashioned but I tend to think if we all just followed the speed limits, showed each other a bit of courtesy and above all else, kept driver distraction to a minimum, perhaps there'd be a lot less carnage, mayhem and general frustration on the roads.

That said, bluetooth connectivity was actually one of my primary concerns when I bought my car. I really couldn't have cared less how long it took to get from 0-100 - as long as I could listen to podcasts on my phone while I drove to work.

This doesn't mean I'm averse to the idea of using a virtual assistant while driving - quite the contrary. If we had one that was reliable and actually did what it was asked, it would probably make driving even more distraction-free. No more fiddling with the stereo or sneaky taps and swipes on your phone, hoping a passing cop won't catch you and fine you.

For example, if you've been enjoying using Alexa on your smart speakers around the house, wouldn't it be great to take that same hands-free experience onto the road?

The truth is, Amazon gave us this functionality three or four years ago, with the original Echo Auto. If you haven't heard of it, or haven't got round to trying it, the good news is there's a new Exho Auto. It's smaller and works even better.

The Echo Auto (2nd gen) follows the same theory as the original; it's basically just the microphone part of an Echo smart speaker paired with your car's sound system, giving you instant access to all of Alexa's skills and routines while you're out and about.

To be strictly accurate - there is still a speaker component but this is primarily used for setup purposes and on the new Echo Auto has been physically separated from the mic and is now located at the other end of the power cable. This plugs into the included fast car charger or directly into the USB port on your car's console (if it has one like mine does).

The inclusion of the fast car charger brings you the added bonus of a second USB-C port so you can charge another device (ie: your phone) simultaneously.

The box also includes a long AUX cable and a small magnetic mount for the mic. This mount has an adhesive backing so it can be located pretty much anywhere around your dashboard - preferably somewhere you can easily see it and perhaps operate its two physical buttons if required - more on that shortly.

Once you have the Echo Auto mounted and plugged in, setup is a fairly straightforward process which begins with Alexa voice prompts from the device itself the moment you power on your car. You'll need to have downloaded and logged into the Alexa app on your phone and you can decide to connect to your car's sound system via bluetooth or using the included AUX cable if your stereo has a 3.5mm aux-in port.

To me, this second option has always been the real beauty of the Echo Auto idea - even if your car doesn't have bluetooth, if it has an AUX-in, you can now do all the things those other fancy-pancy bluetooth people can do. And thanks to Alexa, probably more. Funnily enough, although my car does have bluetooth, it's not very good. It seems to take ages to start up when I turn on my car and every now and again will forget it's supposed to auto-connect with my phone and I'll have to go through the pairing process all over again.

Thanks to Echo Auto, I no longer have to suffer this frustration. It connects to my phone without fail about five seconds after I turn my car on and because I have it hard-wried into the AUX input I can start playing audio immediately.

Admittedly, most of what the Echo Auto brings to the table is similar to what you would achieve if you were using a different voice assistant on your phone connected via bluetooth - although I've often been frustrated with inconsistent results using my phone this way - especially trying to get around my phone's lock screen. Although I swear I've set things up for my virtual assistant to control my phone, even when the screen is locked, it's amazing how often this just doesn't work when I need it to the most.

The Echo Auto simply doesn't seem to run into these issues. Whether making or taking phone calls, asking for directions, querying the weather conditions at my destination or just controlling Spotify, all these things seem to work - although admittedly there can be a delay of a few seconds while Alexa processes my request.

The new, much smaller mic module seems to be just as sensitive if not more so than any other Echo smart speaker I've used. Alexa doesn't seem to have any issue hearing my commands over road noise and automatically fades down whatever's playing on my stereo as soon as I use the "Alexa" wake word.

As I mentioned, there are in fact two small buttons on the mic module, a mute button and an action button (instead of saying, "Alexa) but I don't know why you'd use either of these as it kind of defeats the whole point of a hands-free virtual assistant in the first place.

What the Echo Auto offers that other in-car audio systems don't is access to your wider Alexa ecosystem. This means your smart home devices, skills and routines are now linked to your car as well. A prime example is my preferred podcast app, Pocket Casts. Until now I've never been able to control this app using a voice assistant - sure I can play and pause but if I'm listening to Spotify then want to swap to Pocket Casts neither Siri or Google Assistant seem to have any idea what I'm talking about.

Alexa, on the other hand, knows exactly what I mean when I say, "Play Pocket Casts" because I've linked the Pocket Casts skill in the Alexa app. In fact, she'll then ask me if I want to continue the Episode I was previously listening to or I can choose something different instead.

The fact is, either you're an Alexa person or you aren't. If you are, the Echo Auto (2nd gen) is an easy, affordable, reliable way to take her into your car with you. I get there are plenty of you out there with other, flasher, more integrated smart car audio systems and this device is probably not for you.

However, for those of us driving a nice, reliable, economical Hyundai i20 from 2014, this is a pretty efficient way to make our cars quite a bit smarter.

 

 

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Amazon Echo Auto (2nd gen).