“Alexa, order me an Uber.”
Amazon’s virtual assistant can now hail an Uber ride for you. By simply asking the Amazon Echo, “Alexa, order me an Uber,” or “Alexa, ask Uber to get me a car,” the device will call a driver to your doorstep without you having to use the Uber smartphone app.
To enable the Uber integration, Echo users can set their location in the “Settings” section of the Alexa App and enable the Uber skill in the “Skills” section of the app to link an Uber account.
This is yet another capability Amazon has added to its virtual assistant, which can also provide information from Wikipedia and the web, tell you the weather, set timers and alarms, read news, record shopping/to-do lists, provide sports updates and scores, and much more. On Thursday, Amazon announced that Spotify premium users can now listen to their music through the Amazon Echo. That followed a separate announcement with Domino’s that allows users to order pizza from the device.
The e-commerce giant has been heavily promoting its smart speaker as of late in a series of Super Bowl ads, leading up to the big game on Sunday.
