Garmin's Speak is a tiny Echo Dot-like device that puts Amazon Alexa on your car windshield, available today for $149
At a recent Amazon event, the company announced BMW would integrate Alexa into its 2018 models. It's no secret that Amazon wants to stick Alexa anywhere and everywhere it can, and BMW is only the beginning.
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon's push to put Alexa in cars was running on two tracks when Garmin launched the Speak: OEM deals like the announcement that BMW would include Alexa in some models by default, and cheap aftermarket dongles such as Anker's $50 Roav Viva USB charger. The Speak is Garmin's entry on the second track — a $149 windshield unit that brings the assistant to cars whose dashboards will never get an Alexa update.
The timing matters because the accessory market was about to get crowded from both sides: Amazon itself shipped the far cheaper $49.99 Echo Auto roughly a year later, while the open-source Alexa Auto SDK gave automakers a path to build Alexa in natively rather than bolt it on.
First-order effects
- Garmin gets a premium-priced foothold in the car-Alexa accessory niche, but immediately sits at the top of a price ladder with Anker's $50 Roav Viva below it — buyers who just want Alexa in an older car now have a half-price alternative.
Second-order effects
- Amazon's own $49.99 Echo Auto undercuts the Speak by $100 for the same job, pressuring Garmin to differentiate on navigation pedigree rather than voice features alone.
Third-order effects
- As automakers adopt the Alexa Auto SDK — and BMW moves toward building its own assistant on Alexa's technology — the aftermarket windshield device becomes a transitional product, with the durable value accruing to whoever owns the assistant layer inside the car.
The trend: Voice assistants are becoming ambient infrastructure across home and car, with Amazon seeding the market through cheap accessories before native OEM integrations take over.