Amazon considering monthly charge for Alexa

[Taco Corp]

https://www.reuters.com/technology/...rofitable-alexa-service-ai-revamp-2024-06-21/

I wonder how this would impact Rivian's choice of an onboard assistant if Amazon starts charging monthly for access to Alexa.

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[VC_Rivian]

Alexa is not great and Amazon music is lacking in the R1T. At least for me.

 

[Hillbilly]

https://www.reuters.com/technology/...rofitable-alexa-service-ai-revamp-2024-06-21/

I wonder how this would impact Rivian's choice of an onboard assistant if Amazon starts charging monthly for access to Alexa.

I won't pay for Alexa, I won't pay for at&t, I'm so tired of the nickel and diming. I sure hope this rivian experience continues to avoid it. They've been great so far in not trying to screw their customers.

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I wouldn't pay for Alexa. She's horrible. And they already suckered me into paying $9.99 for Prime music, on top of my current Prime subscription, and the additional $2.99 to get movies without commercials.

I would pay for Google Assistant.

 

[ThumprMN]

…….. ok, I’ll be the first to rattle the cage. CarPlay?!?

 

[Taco Corp]

…….. ok, I’ll be the first to rattle the cage. CarPlay?!?

I kind of doubt it, wouldn't surprise me if they tried to develop something in in house at that point. "Hey Gary" coming soon...

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

I'm fine with paying for something if I feel the value is there and that I will benefit from it. As it is currently, I can't see a benefit to paying for Alexa.

 

[electruck]

The article indicates the free tier would still exist. The paid tier would bring more advanced capabilities via GenAI (sounds like the free tier may also leverage GenAI just with a reduced feature set).

That said, it appears Amazon is still holding out hope that Alexa will drive product sales but, I hate to be the one to break the bad news to them, that is never going to happen. And if Google and Apple and likely others are still offering free GenAI based assistants, nobody is going to pay for enhanced Alexa.

 

[s0ysauce]

lol hell no. Alexa on the Rivian is not good. And I'm saying it in a nice way.

 

[Hillbilly]

Why do you consider paying for data in your vehicle nickel and diming? Almost every car company does it. It’s not new. I had a 2018 Volvo that I had to add to my AT&T family plan. Before we had data in vehicles, you had to buy expensive map updates for your vehicle from the manufacture. You couldn’t just open maps and get up to date info. We are paying for a service. You get maps, music, connected features. Have you ever had a vehicle that you had to pay extra for integrated navigation and then pay extra for a new Maps the next year? I would say that’s Nickel and diming. It’s way cheaper now than ever.

I've never paid a dime for vehicle features in my life. On Star, Sirius, Internet connectivity, whatever. I'm perfectly happy buying an old vehicle without all that stuff.

 

[ndmiller]

They should pay me to use Alexa. It pretty much sucks, just like the rest of them.

 

[SwampNut]

The point of the paid for version is that it would supposedly be usable. I just added CarPlay instead.

 

[Captain JB]

Alexa is incompetent and finicky. Not a chance

 

[DucRider]

Since the Rivian OS is based on Android Automotive, implementing Google Assistant is probably the path of least resistance.
But since Amazon is still an investor and customer.....

 

[sub]

Why do you consider paying for data in your vehicle nickel and diming?

I think Rivian' shouldn't charge extra for data because it is annoying to have another bill to remember to keep track of and close to 100% of the customers are going to buy it (too many features rely on the data for people to go without the data plan). It is more convenient for both Rivian and the customer to just collect the full cost upfront.

I'm not saying it should come out of Rivian's profit margin. We should pay for it. But on a vehicle this expensive it should just be bundled into the purchase price. Rivian is a luxury vehicle, and removing stuff (like paying a bill every month) from my to-do list is the ultimate luxury.

On a $20,000 vehicle it is probably impossible to include the cost of data without impacting the MRSP enough to impact sales. But on a $100,000 vehicle no one is going to notice if they raised the price by the $500-$1000 it would cost to include it.

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