BMW cars already have support for Amazon's Alexa. But the carmaker wants to take things a step further by building its own custom voice assistant based on Amazon's Alexa core technology. This upcoming voice assistant will be built using Amazon's Alexa Custom Assistant. It's a service that allows automakers and device manufacturers to create their own digital assistants using Amazon's tech.
This service will allow BMW to create its customized wake words, voices, and capabilities with Alexa as the base. BMW hopes it can "enable an even more natural dialogue between driver and vehicle." This is critical for ensuring the voice assistant reduces distractions for drivers since it can help with things like finding directions, changing music, or even adjusting the heating or cooling in the cars. BMW aims to roll out its custom-built voice assistant within the next couple of years.