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Rivian To Add Amazon’s Alexa To Its Upcoming All-Electric Vehicles

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Amazon-backed EV startup Rivian will integrate the popular voice assistant Alexa into its first two all-electric vehicles.

With the integration of Amazon Alexa into the hardware of the upcoming R1T pickup and R1S SUV, Rivian owners will be able to ask Alexa to control key vehicle features such as HVAC, windows, opening and closing the frunk, and more. Moreover, users will be able to check on their gear remotely by accessing the vehicle’s bed camera from screen-based devices like Echo Show and Fire TV.

According to the company, the integration also allows Rivian to provide new “car-to-home” and “home-to-car” skills unique to its vehicles, as well as access to certain Alexa features when the vehicle is offline.

The integration is set to debut at the end of this year in the Rivian R1T and R1S.

In September 2019, Amazon announced it was ordering 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian, claimed to be the largest order ever of electric delivery vehicles. Rivian has also plans to extend the Alexa integration supported in the R1T and R1S to these vehicles, which will start delivering packages to customers in 2021.