TU-TESL

• 22

On January 8, according to foreign media reports, American electric vehicle start-up company rivian announced that it would directly integrate Amazon's voice assistant Alexa into its upcoming vehicles, including r1t electric pickup and R1s electric. In November 2018, rivian presented his pickup r1t and R1s electric SUV for the first time at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Both vehicles are built using rivian's flexible "skateboarding" platform, with the largest group, with more than 400 miles (644 kilometers) of endurance, and will be manufactured at the company's manufacturing plant, with deliveries expected to begin later in 2020. Through Amazon's Alexa, rivian's r1t and R1s owners will be able to use voice commands to control their vehicles' entertainment systems, navigation, windows, air conditioning systems, etc., such as playing music, making calls, opening and closing the trunk. Similarly, this feature will provide remote access so that owners can use mobile devices or other screen based smart devices to check their vehicles. Rivian promised that some Alexa features could be used offline, but the company didn't specify which ones. This is because R1s and r1t will be used in remote and rugged places where Internet access may be limited. Rivian was founded in 2009, only 10 years old, is a new electric vehicle manufacturer. In February 2019, the company announced that it obtained $700 million in financing, which was led by Amazon and participated by existing shareholders. In addition, last December, Amazon participated in a $1.3 billion financing round of rivian, led by T. Rowe price associates, an asset management company. In addition to the investment, rivian announced in late September that it would work with Amazon to develop an electric delivery vehicle using rivian's platform technology, which is expected to start delivering packages to customers in 2021. Currently, Amazon has ordered 100000 electric delivery vehicles from rivian, which is the largest order received by rivian since its establishment. Rivian plans to deliver the first batch of electric delivery vehicles to Amazon from 2021, and hopes that Amazon will have 10000 electric delivery vehicles on the road in 2022, and the remaining 90000 will be on the road in 2030. Rivian announced that it plans to integrate Alexa directly into the 100000 all electric delivery vehicles ordered by Amazon. Rivian is not the first automaker to install Amazon Alexa on its cars. On Monday local time, Italian carmaker Lamborghini also announced that it plans to include Amazon's Alexa in its Huracan Evo. Amazon has used Alexa in many of its own and third-party products, such as the smart speaker echo. Currently, there are more than 100 million Alexa driven devices on the market. In addition to home, Amazon plans to use its voice assistant, Alexa, in other areas. Recently, the company announced on its website that it intends to apply Alexa to the field of automobiles. Amazon said on its official website that with the introduction of Alexa, an intelligent voice assistant, into the automotive sector, new products and services will enable automakers and suppliers to provide consumers with more convenient and connected driving experiences.