Anker’s Roav sub-brand just announced the Viva, a new car kit and USB charger that brings Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant instantly to almost any modern car.
According to a new report from Engadget, the device plugs into a 12-volt cigarette lighter outlet and turns Alexa into your own personal co-pilot. The Viva connects to the host vehicle and phone via Bluetooth 4.0, so one’s car needs to support wireless audio streaming for everything to work.
Revealing the Roav Viva at CES 2018, Anker Innovations CEO Steven Yang said that the device would remove “…both the pricing and technical barriers for consumers who want to make their driving experiences both safer and smarter.”
Once connected, the Viva’s dual noise-canceling microphones allow the driver to use the “Alexa” key phrase and Alexa skills for navigation, news, music and more:
You can do anything you can usually do with Alexa through Roav Viva, such as checking for weather conditions or ordering a coffee. If you want to play music, you can ask Alexa to connect to iHeartRadio or Pandora. You can also listen to audiobooks on Audible, play Jeopardy with friends during a road trip and use voice commands to look up directions on Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze. If you want to use Roav Viva as a charger, you can plug in two devices at once. Since it’s powered by Anker’s super-fast PowerIQ charging technology, you may even be able to quickly switch between the gadgets you’re charging if you need to.
The Viva’a microphones are designed to isolate voices, filter out background noise, and eliminate echoes that inherently come with ambient car noise to make sure Alexa doesn’t misinterpret its user.
The device features two USB charging points for phones or other devices, an LED light ring indicating Alexa status, and two pinhole microphones, as well as a mute button when you’d rather Alexa wasn’t listening in to your family arguments.
Anker’s Roav Viva works with both Android and iPhone, and will only set you back $50 USD. It’s now available for pre-order on Amazon in the United States, and will also launch globally in the coming months.
