Skip to main content

Here uses Alexa to offer drivers voice-first navigation

Here Technologies is to integrate its navigation and location services with Amazon’s Alexa to offer drivers voice-first navigation. At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Here announced that it would utilise Alexa Auto tools to keep drivers focused on the road while offering personalised guidance. Alexa will come pre-integrated with Here Navigation On-Demand, the company’s new navigation-as-a-service model which allows drivers to search for points of interest and access live traffic information. Additionally,
January 8, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

7643 Here Technologies is to integrate its navigation and location services with Amazon’s Alexa to offer drivers voice-first navigation.

At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Here announced that it would utilise Alexa Auto tools to keep drivers focused on the road while offering personalised guidance.

Alexa will come pre-integrated with Here Navigation On-Demand, the company’s new navigation-as-a-service model which allows drivers to search for points of interest and access live traffic information.

Additionally, Here is bringing its location services platform to the Alexa service to allow users to search and locate points of interest, access live traffic information and conduct route planning. Users can ask Alexa to set a reminder to pick up shopping from a store after work from inside their home, for example. While driving, the in-vehicle navigation system finds the optimal route the shop based on real-time traffic information and issues a reminder as the vehicle approaches the store location.

Christoff Hellmis, vice president, strategic management at Here, says this shows that integrating another service like Alexa to voice interface can easily be done.

Alexa utilises Here’s location services to help users estimate their journey time.

Looking ahead, the partnership will explore opportunities to provide additional functionality to automakers and their customers. Here’s Open Location Platform (OLP) - which ingests live car sensor data pooled from multiple car brands - would allow Alexa to answer questions more contextually, for instance with a response that tells drivers to turn directly after a designated building.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Iteris partners with Here on advanced traffic data and analytics
    June 18, 2014
    Iteris has been selected, along with Here, to compete with a small group of other companies to provide traffic data and analytics for the I-95 Corridor Coalition, which stretches nearly 2,000 miles from Maine to Florida. Iteris will work in partnership with Here to deliver advanced traffic analytics to support the Coalition, allowing decision-makers to closely monitor traffic and weather conditions, measure performance, optimise operations, and communicate actionable information to traffic engineers.
  • New guide to EV Charging & Infrastructure
    November 14, 2022
    ITS International's sister website is launching to cover the growing business of EV infrastructure
  • Here and Mitsubishi unveil road hazard alert system
    May 22, 2019
    Here Technologies has piloted a system with Mitsubishi Electric which it claims can enable vehicles to automatically warn others about upcoming road hazards with lane-level precision Here says the Lane Hazard Warning platform enables an event detected by a vehicle’s sensors – such as a slow car or pothole – to be localised to a specific lane. This information can then be transmitted in real time via the cloud to other vehicles approaching the same area, the company adds. Hiroshi Onishi, executive office
  • EVs stir interest but face obstacles – IBM study
    May 18, 2012
    Many automobile industry executives believe that sales of traditional vehicles will peak before 2020 and are looking to electric-only vehicles (EVs) as one of the next hot products, but they will first have to address stringent consumer requirements about EV performance, recharging, and convenience, according to a new IBM survey of consumer attitudes and a recent study of auto industry executives.