Test Driving Amazon’s Echo Auto

Much has been written, including this blog, about how in-car listening is likely to change once smart speaker technology enters the auto. What happens when you can simply ask for audio from any source — any podcast, The Beatles on Spotify, an update on the score of the Michigan football game, or a stream of 100,000 radio stations anywhere in the world?

That day is now here. Maybe a little clunky in its first iteration. But here.

I ordered Amazon’s Echo Auto shortly after the announcement in January. It arrived this week (ten months later?) and I took it for a spin.

The device is smaller than anticipated and unobtrusive in design. Remove the speaker from the Echo Dot or the Pringles sized cylinder in your kitchen and it ends up as a credit card sized device about a ½ inch thick.

It reminds me of the early days of car phones with antennas and cables dangling into cigarette lighters.

“With great serendipity, I was able to resume the podcast from where I left off on my home Echo device later”

It piggybacks on your phone’s cell service and functions via the Echo smartphone app which itself is a functional Alexa device capable of doing much of what can be done on a smart speaker. It is noticeably…