Over the past few weeks, Home has been picking up the ability to do things like order pizza play games, but a new partnership with Hyundai looks to exp the power of the voice-powered speaker beyond our living rooms. At CES this week, Hyundai is showing off a new integration with Home that’ll let you start or lock your car just by saying “OK, .”
According to a press release, capable Hyundai cars will be able to tap into Blue nk services like remote Start with climate control, destination search, door lock by asking Assistant to perform the selected action. As the Korean carmaker explains, “Once a customer has successfully linked his or her account, Remote Service comms will only be sent to Hyundai vehicles after the Assistant prompts owners for their Blue nk rsonal Identification Number.” Hyundai will be showing off the technology at CES this week.
Hyundai was one of the first auto makers to allow drivers to control their cars from their smartphones smartwatches, so it’s no surprise that it has jumped on the Home bwagon so quickly. eviously, Hyundai also announced that its services would be baked into Amazon’s line of exa-powered products, beginning with the top-of-the-line Genesis. At the time, it promised that all 2017 most 2016 models would be upgraded with the feature.
Of course, all that cool connectivity comes at a price. ong with a newer model car, Blue nk costs $199 a year for the remote start locking capabilities, another $99 for guidance, though discounts are available for longer commitments. Hyundai hasn’t said when the Home integration will be available, but it does promise that extra features will be added before it launches.
The impact on you at home: You don’t need to own a Sonata to get excited about the prospect of using Home to control your car. Asking for the weather or the news is nice, but to truly make the voice-powered speaker useful it needs to be more of an actual assistant than a party trick. And the ability for Home to start your car when you’re rushing to get ready for work is fantastic sign of what’s to come.
