Before this video starts, here at TechFlow, we just wanted to let you know that the Amazon
Echo Dot is currently down to £34.99 from £49.99 and the huge Echo is down to £79.99
from £149.99.
Link's in the top bar of the description if you want to pick them up now - these deals
won't last for long.
JED: Oh, I need some music!
OK Google...
OK Google!
OK GOOGLE!
ALEX: Hello and welcome to the show!
My name is Alex and this is TechFlow.
So, I did a vlog about two months ago where I installed Amazon Alexa in my car.
In the vlog, I showed Alexa working in the car and a little bit about how I installed
it but I had a lot of questions saying: Alex, can you do a detailed video on this?
Can you show us normal people how to put an Alexa in a car?
Let's do this.
Hello and welcome to the show.
So, installing Alexa in your car is going to be a very messy procedure so how you go
about doing that in your own vehicle is up to you but I'm going to show you guys how
to do it.
So, step number one, you're going to need an Amazon Echo Dot.
Now, you're going to need the Dot, not the big Alexa - the Dot - because it has the 3.5
millimetre audio out.
That's going to come in to big play whilst doing this.
You're also going to want, well, a USB socket in your car.
If you don't have one, get one of these cigarette lighter to USB sockets.
You're also going to need a micro USB cable - you're going to need two of these actually
- and then you're also going to have to get a wireless hot spot dongle so that we can
get some internet connection to Alexa.
So, first off, this is my Echo Dot or, much rather, as I've called it, the JCW Dot, because
it's going in my JCW.
So, on the back of this I have put a little piece of, well, velcro, right.
There you go.
You can see it there.
It's just a piece of velcro - Alex, what's that for?
Well, pretty much, my car has this material all over it, like a fabric, and this velcro
just sticks to the fabric.
So, as you can see, my Alexa just lives down there and, therefore, when I'm sat in here
driving the microphone is visible to my mouth - it's going to hear what I'm saying.
From there, we're going to take the 3.5 millimetre audio jack, plug that in to the back of the
Alexa and also a micro USB for power.
Once you've got both of those plugged in, go ahead and velcro it down to wherever you want.
Mine's going to live there and then I'm going to pull my seat forwards and hide those cables.
So, my car has a 3.5 millimetre auxiliary input and, as you can see, the other end of
the auxiliary input that comes out of Alexa is just going to plug straight in to the auxiliary
input in the car and then, in my car, I'm going to go to external devices and then all
of the way down to auxiliary front.
There we go.
So, as you can see, next to the auxiliary port in my car, I also have a USB port which
would be perfect for plugging in Alexa to give her a little bit of power.
But instead, I'm not plugging her in there.
What I'm going to do is route the, is route the micro USB cable in from the back of Alexa
to my boot.
So, what that's going to do is free up cable clutter in the front of the car.
Now we need our last three items.
We need our cigarette lighter to USB adapter, we need our small, micro USB which we may
as well plug that in there now and then we need our WiFi hot spot.
Pretty much what this thing is going to do is when it receives power, it's going to connect
to the cell network - I've got a SIM card in here which has 10 gigabytes of data on
it - and it's going to provide a wireless network, as well as for Alexa, also for the
passengers in your car, which is awesome.
So, as you can see, just up here in my boot of my JCW here, I have a, well, a cigarette
socket so I'm going to plug that in there and, as you can see, this device is now receiving power.
It's got two USB ports.
So, what I'm going to do, is this is the USB cable that is connected to Alexa.
I've routed it through, underneath all of the back seats.
That's going to plug into there and give Alexa power and then this one here is going to plug
in to the little WiFi dongle to give it power so that it knows when to turn on when the
engine starts.
So, now what happens when I flick the start button in my car is it's going to provide
power to that cigarette lighter in the back of the car which is going to provide power
to two USB ports - one of them going to Amazon Alexa to get her all fired up and one getting
the wireless dongle all fired up too, giving out a WiFi hot spot for the car and passengers.
Now all you need to do is connect the Alexa or the Echo Dot to that wireless network and
that's it; it's done.
Alexa - are you online?
ALEXA: Yes, I am connected to the internet.
ALEX: It's as simple as that.
Alexa, play Barbie Girl.
ALEXA: Barbie Girl by Aqua on Spotify.
SONG: Hiya Barbie.
Hi Ken!