SEAT is beginning the roll out of Amazon Alexa, Amazon’s cloud-based voice service, in its vehicles, giving customers access to a host of functions through simple voice commands.

Bringing Amazon Alexa into the car means customers can optimise their time behind the wheel; whether its managing their personal schedule, playing music, navigating to points of interest, requesting personalised news or finding the nearest SEAT dealership. All users need to do is press the control button on the steering wheel and speak.

Launched in 2014, Amazon Alexa now has more than 45,000 skills thanks to the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), which encourages developers to continually expand and evolve the Alexa’s capabilities.

“As functionality and connectivity levels increase, we have to find a balance between usability and safety. Introducing Amazon Alexa helps us find that balance” said SEAT President Luca de Meo. “With just a tap of the steering wheel, customers will be able to ask Alexa for music, points of interest and much more without taking eyes off the road.”

Services are now available in the UK on model year 19 Leon and Ateca models equipped with navigation, via the Android SEAT Media Control with Amazon Alexa app. Simply download SEAT Media Control with Amazon Alexa from the Android PlayStore, connect it to the vehicle and the voice service is ready to use.

SEAT claims to be the first automotive brand in Europe to launch Amazon Alexa in its vehicle line-up.