Nissan allows Amazon Alexa to control cars

Nissan is giving some of its owners the opportunity to use voice commands to remote lock and unlock their vehicles, honk the horn, flash the lights and start or stop the engine.



The company has teamed up with Amazon to allow people to use the Amazon Echo to take control using Alexa, with the company saying the new skill will work on both new and previous model year Nissan vehicles equipped with telematics, and that it continues to offer even more technology and innovation as part of the company's Nissan Intelligent Mobility mission.



"Don't risk burning what is in the oven; don't dump out your bag in search of a key fob ' you can now use your voice to remote-start your Nissan. Available later this month, a new skill for Amazon Alexa (powered by NissanConnectSM Services) will allow some Nissan owners a new way to interact with their vehicles," the company says it a statement.



"There are now over 25,000 Alexa skills, and Nissan's connected car skill will be one of the newest. Riding on the popularity of Alexa, Nissan uses already-available features within NissanConnect Services to enable the new skill on some of its new and existing vehicles," it continues.



"Intelligent integration means helping our customers even when they are not behind the wheel," said Dan Teeter, director, Vehicle Connected Services, Nissan North America. "We are about bringing unexpected innovations to customers, and are excited to offer this technology to both existing and new Nissan owners."



Nissan says that later this month, users will be able to find and use the new skill, called "NissanConnect Services," free of charge under the connected car category within the Amazon Skills Store.



It will be available on certain model year 2016, 2017, 2017.5 and 2018 Nissan vehicles equipped with NissanConnect Services telematics. Amazon's Alexa integration will require owners to have an active subscription to NissanConnect Services and a valid Nissan Owner Portal account, although the NissanConnect Services app does not need to be running to use the service.

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