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AT THIS YEAR’S Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Ford announced that it is going to turn its vehicles into super smart devices by connecting them to Amazon’s Alexa service.
Ford says that Alexa will be in some of its vehicles by this summer.
What is it?
Alexa is a voice-operated intelligent personal assistant service from retail giant Amazon, designed for use in the home. It is now being integrated into future Ford vehicles – meaning you can operate your car from home and your home from the car.
All you have to do is tap the voice recognition button on the steering wheel, then say ‘Alexa’ followed by a question or command.
What does it do?
Alexa has many skills, and as it is a cloud-based platform its skill set is (theoretically) constantly growing. What this means is that Ford vehicle owners will have the ability to access their car from home, and call up other features from their vehicle.
A simple function might be to continue listening to an audiobook between your home and car. You should also be able to add items to a shopping list or check weather, news, sport results and so on – all without having to use your hands.
A more advanced use would be to tell Alexa via an Amazon Echo device to start the car’s engine and to turn on the heat. Or to tell Alexa to open or lock your car or to turn on or off the alarm. You can do this from the comfort of your own home.
From the car, you can access functions of any smart devices that you have in your home. For example, you can tell Alexa to turn on your house lights, turn on the heating, warm up the water, start the dishwasher, turn on the oven, turn on the radio or shut your garage door or electric gates. You can even tell Alexa to make a pot of coffee and put on the toaster so you can have food ready as soon as you get home!
Can I check it out in action?
Watch all the ways you can make Alexa work for you and your car.
Why would I want it?
Think how much easier Alexa would make your life? Imagine driving home one cold night and being able to have your home toasty warm and dinner ready for you by the time you reach your driveway.
No more getting lost or fiddling with the sat-nav – all you have to do is tell Alexa to add the directions to your infotainment system.
You can also train Alexa in new skills and develop your own commands specific to the devices in your home and your own driving preferences. It is – again, theoretically – like having your own personal maid, butler and PA all in one and at your disposal 24/7.
What do users say?
There are no user reviews yet. But unsurprisingly, the manufacturers are very positive. Don Butler, Executive Director of Ford Connected Vehicle and Services said:
Customers will be able to start their vehicles from home, and manage smart home features while on the road – making life easier.
Also speaking about Alexa in the Car, Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Alexa commented:
We believe voice is the future, and this is particularly true in cars. The ability to use your voice to control your smart home, access entertainment, manage to-do lists and more makes for an extraordinary driving experience.
I have to hand it to the Cosgrave family, none of the pomp and circumstance to a man who has long since been in the political shadows.
And presumably a fraction of the cost to the taxpayer.
Well done.
@Trevor Hayden: good. But the cost is another issue. Look at all the politicians who’ll be present alone at huge cost.
@Trevor Hayden: How much has he cost the state since retiring though?
@Rob Cahill: Exactly, that’s why I’m glad they are not spending millions on a state funeral
Lots of elderly people die every day of the week and they have also served their country well, why do the people in the political class think they deserve state funerals, any way may he Rest In Peace.
@Casper:???
@Casper:Just give it a rest.
@Casper: He probably requested partial state funeral to family on his death bed ! Casper have respect for the deceased please
@Casper: If this is a cry for help, please just say so. Nobody should have to suffer like this.
@David Browne: I am well rested David thanks for your concern
@Casper: bacause they all think theydeserve it. Its calledclass distinction. Them and lower class.
@Noel: I have acknowledged my respect in the statement but I am also throwing out a taught
Don’t speak ill of the dead. Load of bull. He was a public figure and with such bull being spoken by all and sundry we need balance.
@Casper: Shut up. Get a life. Get some sense.
@Casper: I presume you mean ‘thought’.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: lololololololololollololololololololololol
He helped to negotiate the Sunningdale agreement which was opposed and brought down by the IRA Sinn Fein and the Loyalist lead by Paisley….It was more or less the same as Good Friday agreement….
@John003: The Sunningdale didnt even once contain the word ‘equality’. Any thoughts on his government’s cover up of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings? Or his initial attempt to portray it as an IRA attack,for his own political purposes? Or on his sending in of special branch to break up a gathering of IRA leaders in Feakle which were about securing an IRA ceasefire?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Well I guess the absence of the word equality was enough to justify keeping the killing going for another 30 years….Was worth the hundreds of deaths to get that word in GFA …..No .I don’t think the Irish government had any part in the Dublin Monaghan bombing or any cover up…….I know the IRA planted the Enniskilken bomb however or do you think that was the Irish government also…..
John, don’t bother; TEG supports the bombing of innocent civilians by PIRA terrorists.
Sunningdale was Good Friday for slow learners
Ripped down by bigoted filth in the DUP and PIRA/SF.
@John003: The only mistake special branch made in Feakle is they didn’t empty a few dozen clips of bullets/bring the SAS with them
@Diarmuid: Again Diarmuid, either provide a link to one single quote of me where I said I support the blowing up innocent people or f&€k off back underneath whatever rock you crawled out from you sick minded little creep.
@John003: State enforced inequality was worth fighting. As for your contention that there was no state coverup, maybe explain why the Barron Report found “the entirety” of the Department of Justice’s files on the investigation went missing? And why the Department of Justice refused to hand over any documents to the Barron Enquiry? And why the enquiry found his government to have had “little or no interest in the investigation? And why the investigation team looking into this murder of 34 people was wound up after just two months? And why intelligence identifying the bombers was not followed up on? P.s. This discussion is about Cosgrave’s legacy so bringing up the (disgusting) Enniskillen bomb is as shameless a bit of victim using as I’ve come across on this site. Which is saying something.
@John003: you mean twenty years
@John003: “No .I don’t think the Irish government had any part in the Dublin Monaghan bombing or any cover up”
What you think makes no difference to reality.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: ouch
What did he do that’s so wonderful? Who’s writing all tbe tributes being read out? Load of bull. Always put the nation first. How? I really want to know.
@Derek Billings: He was our leader and also served in our army.
@Jon Snow: and claimed a good pension for 44 years
He was our leader. Under furer. So?
Sorry Unser furer.
@bmul: so you are blaming him for living so long? What a terrible attitude to have. Do/did you not wish your own parents a longer life of do you think there should be an expiration date for humans too?
@Jon Snow: When was he in the army ? He was no friend of the Irish people , he opposed his own governments attempt to ease restrictions on contraception .
He nearly put us into a state of emergency with draconian laws . He joined the blue shirt party at the height of fascism .
@Paddy Hayden: What draconian laws?
@Derek Billings: “Sorry Unser furer.”
I think you mean “unser fuhrer” but never mind obviously the money the state invested in your education was wasted……
@Derek Billings: He did not do anything wonderful at all, and like a lot of the rest of those so called political people inherited a life long free trip on the Irish taxpayer funded gravy train.
@Derek Billings:
Anyone know the dates of the programmes about the other side of the Cosgrave legacy?
@Jon Snow: leader of FG. Taoiseach for four years. TD pension for 36 years. Ignored investigation of 1974 bombings. Not a great CV
Liam Cosgrave could, at best and charitably, be described as an almost mediocre Taoiseach. He presided over a repressed Ireland as Taoiseach from 1973-1977..
He retired as Taoiseach more than 40 years ago at a time when 50% of the current Irish population was not yet born.
He held onto values from a past age.Couples were subjugated and denied choice.
He believed that all politics was parish politics .Just read Fintan O Toole in today’s Irish Times. He lacked vision and was hampered by a very parochial view of life.
I have passed his home on Scholarstown Road daily for 40 years plus. He has had 24 hour Garda cover for all these years. Gardai drove him to mass every day while they would have been better deployed in combating crime. To my mind, this is immoral .40 years is more than the span of most people’s working lives. Surely, a more cost-efficient security system could be devised.
I cannot recall any contribution from him to the community in Knocklyon apart from opening the primary school in 1976.
He may have come from the royalty , the founding fathers of the Irish state, but he made little or no contribution to the evolution of an outward-thinking, forward=looking Irish state.
@Miriam Mason:you got it bang on,.
Had a good comfortable life. Born into a comfortable family. I remember him as just another grey suited boring politician of his time.
@Derek Billings: family home burned in 1920 but no moaning about it
Great age RIP Mr Cosgrave !
Yeah great age. The well fed well shod with first class medical care good warm houses and a few quid in the bank. Wonder how many of us will live to ninety seven.
@Derek Billings: ah Jesus, you are some knob
What me? I’ll have you know I’m no such thing.. ah c’mon such bull being spoken about a man that everyone thought, including myself, was long dead. He was an ultra conservative catholic. A general pain.
@Whingy McWhingy: He’s right though, Retired in 1981 on a gold plated pension prob. Thats 36 years living off the tax payer. Think we’ll ever get that opportunity?
I remember him clearly and he was always standing in firm during the crisis in his government years. RIP.
It seems that some people posting here seem to have an issue with the fact that he lived to be 97. Would they wish s shorter life for their parent? This is about respect for the dead, not politics.
His father reopened GPO after 1916 rising folks !
@Noel: Just a shame he got us into the EU, his father may have reopened the GPO but due to membership of the EU we are now under German Rule thanks to ff/fg.
@Trevor Hayden: He’s responsible for arguably the greatest thing to happen to this country? Well said Trev.
@Diarmuid: German Rule? Wow.
@Noel: His father in the G.P.O. certainly, I admire him for that. They fought for a Republic for all . What did we get …A conservative right wing Catholic dark age state. We pay the price for it today.
Some terrible comments here on the fact that he lived to be 97. Do these people not wish a longer life for their own ancestors? It beggars belief.
@John O’Neill:
Or indeed for themselves ?
I’d love to know what it is costing the working man of Ireland to keep all them ex politicians and senators.
Of an age where Liam Cosgrave was Taoiseach. Would have disagreed with him and his party on most things. As I do to present day. He had a view, right wing Catholic conservative vision of Ireland. As many of his generation he buried his head in the sand . Status quo was their mantra. A sad loss to his family. As a Taoiseach, like Lynch ,Dev .. They were responsible for the corruption that exists in Ireland today.
Why all the negative comments ?? Did he put a tax in flares back in the 70s or something ??
@John Flood: No he banned condoms. For married couples!
Oh just bury him already……
Call the man by his full name journal… have some respect
@Mary Elizabeth Whittle: Respect is earned.
Anyone know the dates of the programmes about the other side of the Cosgrave legacy?
There will be a few Garda out of a job so ,he had 24 hour Garda protection at his home , something to do with confidential paperwork , I’d love to know what it was…
@Linda Hughes: the dails bar tab i would guess
Remenber Frank Stagg…
I’m sure Liam Cosgrave would disown the present repulsive bunch who are in charge of Fine Gael and who have plunged the party into the filth and horror of abortion and homosexual “marriage”. The race to the bottom of the darkest of pits continues with half Dail Eireann riddled with people with the moral fibre of hungry crocodiles and the other half riddled with cowardice that makes them afraid to speak out.
When will RTE show there other side of his legacy. Waist of money but nothing new there.
The man was a career politician as a lot of them are. Very high salary, generous expenses and an excellent pension attract people more interested in money and social influence than the needs of the nation and its citizens.
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