JBL came up with an impressive piece of tech that makes any car intelligent in no time while still managing to be affordable.
It’s 2019 so smoking is about as uncool as possible and car cigarette lighters are hence more useless than they’ve ever been, at least when it comes to their primary purpose. The tech industry is here to help, with JBL arriving at Consumer Electronics Show earlier this week to showcase a brilliant gadget called the Link Drive. Behind this vague name is a rather minimalist contraption which plugs into your car cigarette lighter and infuses your surroundings with the power of Google Assistant, providing you with a more intuitive alternative to interacting with navigation solutions such as Maps while also ensuring the world’s most capable artificial intelligence companion is always ready to help while you’re driving. Most importantly, it accomplishes all of those things without being distracting.
It’s been nearly four years since Google launched Android Auto but this particular projection platform is still having issues with third-party support, while vehicle manufacturers remain reluctant to embrace it for a variety of reasons, including outright fear that Alphabet’s subsidiary will be eating into their future profits, as industry insiders previously claimed. On the other hand, Google Assistant’s penetration is reaching unprecedented heights, with the company expecting it to be available on over a billion active devices by the end of the month. Massive market share is the best possible incentive one can give to the independent developer community, which is why having a Google Assistant in your car is now a much more attractive proposition than Android Auto support. That’s precisely the angle JBL is playing here; the Link Drive obviously still needs to be paired with an eligible Android or iOS smartphone in order to work but at least that extra step after plugging it in actually provides you with an endless pool of regularly updated apps designed for a broad range of purposes.
When set up, the Link Drive essentially acts as a Google Home unit for your car, so its interface designed solely for voice interactions is certainly much less distracting than whatever Android Auto implementation you’ve used in the past. While an Internet-enabled display panel embedded into your dashboard certainly has its advantages, the industry continues to debate whether the trade-offs are worth it when it comes to apps heavy on visual feedback. On the other hand, the JBL Link Drive is a much safer solution that matches Android Auto in most use cases and exceeds it in many, especially when it comes to core functionalities such as hands-free calls – its two noise-canceling microphones provide a seamless calling experience and one that few smartphones can come close to seeing how hands-free operation is an afterthought for most manufacturers.
While all of those features make up a solid, intuitive package that will make your car smarter than ever, what truly makes the JBL Link Drive stand out from the sea of AI-enabled gadgets presented at the latest iteration of CES is that its creators aren’t asking their target audience to break the bank in order to benefit from the latest technology advancements. Instead, the device is set to be priced at only $59.95, which is near the bottom of the price bracket when it comes to AI-equipped products. Any solution that’s innovative, intuitive, useful, and affordable is a praiseworthy affair, perhaps even more so in the context of CES whose exhibitors are often more concerned with teasing the impossible than doing the feasible because the former simply makes for better headlines. However, there’s little doubt that the JBL Link Drive is one of the highlights of this year’s Las Vegas-based trade show and has the potential to be a true tech hit once it becomes available for purchase this spring.