In the event you’ve ever used a automobile’s voice assistant and instantly given up as a result of it felt like speaking to a telephone tree, BMW desires to point out you a special strategy at CES 2026. In Las Vegas (January 6–9), BMW is placing its next-generation cockpit on show within the new iX3, together with Panoramic iDrive and an AI-powered Clever Private Assistant. The headline, although, is the Amazon partnership: BMW says will probably be the primary automaker to combine Alexa+ expertise into its automobiles.
BMW says the demo might be out there at its sales space within the Silver Lot in entrance of the South Corridor on the Las Vegas Conference Heart. You can even get a demo at Amazon’s Units & Providers exhibit on the Venetian (Ballrooms G–J). BMW first introduced their partnership with Amazon Alexa in 2022.
What Alexa+ Truly Is
Alexa+ is Amazon’s generative-AI improve to Alexa, designed to be much less inflexible and extra conversational—nearer to a back-and-forth assistant than a “say the precise command” device. Amazon describes it as extra succesful, extra customized, and geared toward dealing with extra advanced duties than the older Alexa expertise. On the buyer aspect, Amazon has additionally positioned Alexa+ as a paid tier: $19.99/month, however included with Amazon Prime (and it has been rolling out in early entry).
BMW first BMW isn’t saying it’s changing its assistant with Alexa. As a substitute, Amazon describes BMW as the primary automaker to ship its next-generation Alexa Customized Assistant powered by Alexa+—basically Amazon’s tech powering a carmaker-branded voice expertise, moderately than a generic Alexa pores and skin dropped into the dashboard. In BMW’s wording, the customer-facing system remains to be the BMW Clever Private Assistant—however with Alexa+ expertise enabling extra pure dialogue and extra context-aware responses than conventional in-car voice instructions.
Anticipate Good Conversations With Your BMW
What BMW is chasing here’s a system that may perceive regular human phrasing, preserve context over a number of sentences, and do helpful issues rapidly with out turning driving right into a scripted demo. BMW’s personal CES 2026 wording leans into precisely that: extra pure dialogue, extra clever capabilities, and fewer “command and response.” And if you happen to’ve skilled the present BMW Private Assistant within the automobile, you then’d know that it has some shortcomings, particularly with regards to understanding full sentences.
BMW isn’t publishing a full function record within the CES tease, and that’s most likely deliberate. In a lounge, Alexa+ can stretch its legs—good dwelling management, lists, scheduling, purchasing workflows, and (in some rollouts) even a web-based chat interface.
In a automobile, expectations are completely different. The win received’t be “it may possibly discuss.” The win might be whether or not it may possibly deal with actual driving-life requests—navigation modifications mid-route, discovering locations with out clunky phrasing, adjusting automobile capabilities, and remembering what you meant two sentences in the past—with out lag, with out confusion, and with out making you repeat your self.
We’ll have an opportunity to demo the Alexa+ in January and can deliver you a full video demo of the system.
