Science

Tesla Owners Can Now Make Amazon Alexa Charge Their Car

Going green is getting so easy.

by Nickolaus Hines
eMotorWerks

There are two things people can count in the future: everything will be connected, and the cars will be electric. That is, if pollution from natural gasses doesn’t kill us all first. But you don’t have to wait for the future. You can get both of those things now.

EMotorWerks, an at-home electric vehicle charger, announced an Amazon Echo skill for Alexa today that eases the pain of car charging. Using a platform called JuiceNet, Echo owners can control and check on the status of their car battery without ever having to leave the couch.

Who needs assistants, friends, or thumbs? Alexa will be our overlord, and it will be benevolent.

Owners of both products can, for example, ask: “Alexa, what is my charging speed,” or “Alexa, how much range do I currently have?” Have to go to work in the morning and would like to avoid peak electric charges? Just tell Alexa to “charge by 7 a.m. tomorrow.”

Strange company, cool idea.

eMotorWerks

The technology makes owning a Tesla that much easier. Alexa can already summon a Tesla, and the range of additional features that can be added are limited only by developers imaginations. The skills feature (essentially just apps by another name) means that anyone with the means to can program Alexa to do new things. That’s one of the reasons Amazon is, and likely will keep being, a useful tool for homes and devices plugged into the internet of things.

Next up for developers: figure out how to make Alexa control that autonomous Tesla charger.