Anyone using Alexa in their Mach-E?

[zhackwyatt]

I’ve seen all that but others defending Amazon. I’ve checked the article before and I’ve also tested it. I’ve also observed this when Microsoft would do the same thing from my cookies decades ago.
It wasn’t from web browsing.

I don't see how you could possibly make a definitive statement that it's not from web browsing. Even your IP address, screen resolution of your computer, rendering speed of your browser are all things they can use to develop a fingerprint of you.

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[mkhuffman]

In 5.0 I'd expect Alexa to respond to things differently but not track your driving data.

You have higher expectations than I do. My expectation is they will keep trying to improve how they learn about my habits so they can more effectively market to me. I am not interested in participating in that, and a bad actor could use the technology against me. Maybe Amazon won't do it, but someone with access to their network could.

And I don't do business with them so I don't want them in my car. I should be able to choose and not have it forced on me. At least you should agree with that.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

How will using CarPlay help hide the Alexa icon? The top bar is still visible when in CarPlay.

If we are given an update that installs an Alexa icon up on the top row along with our user icons, then I’ll run in quiet mode until we are either given the option to remove it or until I find another car I like without such nonsense. Whichever occurs first.

 

[generaltso]

If we are given an update that installs an Alexa icon up on the top row along with our user icons, then I’ll run in quiet mode until we are either given the option to remove it or until I find another car I like without such nonsense. Whichever occurs first.

Sounds like you might want to start looking at other available options now.

 

[Mathington]

One good test to see if Alexa is listening to you at all times would be to say or talk about very specific things in the car that you wouldn't normally google search or talk about at home. Then, if you start seeing ads in Amazon or online about that item you mentioned in the car, you know it's listening when it shouldn't be.

 

[Mathington]

So funny - 3 pages of replies and nobody has really taken the time to answer the OP question as to how Alexa works in the Mach-E. ?

Let me take a stab at it. It's weird; I have a Galaxy Flip 3 5g, my wife has an iPhone and we now have the choice of Siri, Google, Ford Assistant, and Alexa. Sort of a bot "overload" but all are good with different things.

The best way I can describe using Alexa in the car is this...at home, we have numerous appliances that have Alexa integration and we have set those up in our Alexa app. For example, we have Hue lights, Nest Thermostats, Tidal music, Kevo locks, Liftmaster MyQ garage doors, etc. You get the idea.

Having Alexa in the car is just like having another Echo device at home, but it's in your car. I can be 30 miles from home and "announce" that I'm 30 mins away to my family at home. I can just say, Alexa, play the album Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk on Tidal and boom...it's playing in the car. I can turn on the lights at home just as I'm arriving, or I can set the home to "guard mode" as I'm leaving. Basically, all of the things you can do at home are extended to you while out and about...and I love it. It's not that I'm a huge fanboy of Alexa (for what it's worth), but admittedly, it works extremely well.

If I'm on the freeway listening to loud music in the cabin and say Alexa in a normal voice, the music pauses and Alexa waits for a command...the mic in the car is very sensitive and it works well. Also, Alexa will allow you to do in car things as well as "navigate to 123 Main St" (which uses built in Nav), or set temperature to 72 degrees", etc. but that said, I feel like I struggle a bit more to get those commands to work as well as Ford Assistant or Siri.

All that said, if I want to do anything with Carplay or Android Auto, I'm long pressing the mic button and using Siri or Google to work the apps within their ecosystems. If I'm doing in car stuff, I tend to just hit the mic button quickly and have Ford Assistant help out as it seems more responsive for in car commands for the built in Nav or Mach-E functionality. Again, not that Alexa CAN'T do it, but I just find it easier.

Still, if I want to play a song or podcast from Tidal instantly, or if I want to control something at home, or get a flash news briefing, or get the weather or even play a quick game, Alexa is pretty flawless and a big thumbs up to a very clean integration.

Hope that helps...

Robb

P.S. One last note...that Tidal streaming doesn't come off my phone...it's using a 30 day trial of in car data services that are normally $10 a month and use the built in cell services of the Mach-E. I might just continue to subscribe but undecided right now...$10 isn't too big a deal but the streaming music from Tidal seems to sound a bit more compressed to me than if I'm streaming direct from my phone in Android Auto. I need to "A/B" this a bit more...not 100% sure yet.

Thanks for answering the question about the functionality! The Alexa integration in the R1T is quite impressive, it would be cool to have the same functionality.

 

[HuntingPudel]

If we are given an update that installs an Alexa icon up on the top row along with our user icons, then I’ll run in quiet mode until we are either given the option to remove it or until I find another car I like without such nonsense. Whichever occurs first.

It would be nice if Sync treated Alexa like the other apps so that you could choose to install or uninstall it. Oh, well. Maybe in a future iteration. ??

 

[kgautam28]

You have higher expectations than I do. My expectation is they will keep trying to improve how they learn about my habits so they can more effectively market to me. I am not interested in participating in that, and a bad actor could use the technology against me. Maybe Amazon won't do it, but someone with access to their network could.

And I don't do business with them so I don't want them in my car. I should be able to choose and not have it forced on me. At least you should agree with that.

If you dont have an account, and never set it up, there is no tracking, so no problem. You cannot use it without setting up an account and enabling it, so dont worry about it too much.

 

[Jimrpa]

General rule thumb with ads, they don't show up if you finished purchasing the product. They're there to compell you to buy. So if you looked or clicked on something related to shokz almost in any of your connected devices, you'll see it. Or maybe someone else did, or you purchased JBL or Bose headphones a year ago, and now they're showing ads to it as people are more likely to upgrade yearly.

Lol it doesn’t work very wrong then - I bought a pair of Beats Fit Pro (not impressed) 3 months ago.

 

[Jimrpa]

Sounds like you might want to start looking at other available options now.

We don’t know if it can be disabled yet.

 

[mkhuffman]

If you dont have an account, and never set it up, there is no tracking, so no problem. You cannot use it without setting up an account and enabling it, so dont worry about it too much.

Makes logical sense, but so does accessing the information provided by my car even though I don't have an account. I know, Alexa MME 1.0 doesn't do that. At some point I believe it will.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

These companies have earned our distrust and we should be able to remove their software from our devices if we so choose.

Yes, audio processing is computationally expensive and most of it isn't done on device. And yes, most of the audio the devices can hear is not sent over the network to the mothership because it's also very large.

But audio isn't the only data available. It really doesn't matter that they're not recording our conversations. They can learn much more without listening, using other data that are certainly being fed to the system.

But all of that is irrelevant.

The real problem is that the Alexa system was installed on our cars without a way to uninstall it. I don't use Amazon. I don't want Amazon on any of my devices. I would very much like it not to be in my car. But I didn't have a choice.

I ordered the car without being informed that Alexa would be installed. And I didn't know it was installed until I had already paid for the car.

I knew it came with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, and I was able to make an informed choice.

If I had known it was going to have Alexa installed, without the option to uninstall, I seriously may have looked for a different vehicle.

If, for example, it had come with Facebook's ecosystem installed, I wouldn't have bought it.

 

[mkhuffman]

These companies have earned our distrust and we should be able to remove their software from our devices if we so choose.

Yes, audio processing is computationally expensive and most of it isn't done on device. And yes, most of the audio the devices can hear is not sent over the network to the mothership because it's also very large.

But audio isn't the only data available. It really doesn't matter that they're not recording our conversations. They can learn much more without listening, using other data that are certainly being fed to the system.

But all of that is irrelevant.

The real problem is that the Alexa system was installed on our cars without a way to uninstall it. I don't use Amazon. I don't want Amazon on any of my devices. I would very much like it not to be in my car. But I didn't have a choice.

I ordered the car without being informed that Alexa would be installed. And I didn't know it was installed until I had already paid for the car.

I knew it came with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, and I was able to make an informed choice.

If I had known it was going to have Alexa installed, without the option to uninstall, I seriously may have looked for a different vehicle.

If, for example, it had come with Facebook's ecosystem installed, I wouldn't have bought it.

I agree.

I have been following Rivian since they first revealed the R1T, and I am big fan of what they have built, but the Amazon integration is not acceptable. I have not researched whether or not it can be removed, but if it cannot, Rivian will be off my list forever.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

These companies have earned our distrust and we should be able to remove their software from our devices if we so choose.

Yes, audio processing is computationally expensive and most of it isn't done on device. And yes, most of the audio the devices can hear is not sent over the network to the mothership because it's also very large.

But audio isn't the only data available. It really doesn't matter that they're not recording our conversations. They can learn much more without listening, using other data that are certainly being fed to the system.

But all of that is irrelevant.

The real problem is that the Alexa system was installed on our cars without a way to uninstall it. I don't use Amazon. I don't want Amazon on any of my devices. I would very much like it not to be in my car. But I didn't have a choice.

I ordered the car without being informed that Alexa would be installed. And I didn't know it was installed until I had already paid for the car.

I knew it came with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, and I was able to make an informed choice.

If I had known it was going to have Alexa installed, without the option to uninstall, I seriously may have looked for a different vehicle.

If, for example, it had come with Facebook's ecosystem installed, I wouldn't have bought it.

I concur. My objection is that it’s not, apparently, treated the same as Sirius or other programs available for the MME. Put it on the main display snd allow people to choose whether to install or not. But that would cut the guaranteed revenue Ford got for doing it this way.

 

[generaltso]

We don’t know if it can be disabled yet.

Some 2022 owners have said that it can't.

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