Telenav Connected Car Firm Offers Alexa-Powered Navigation

Connected car and location-based services firm Telenav is furthering its partnership with Amazon by tapping into Alexa’s voice-first navigation, Telenav announced Monday (Jan. 6).

The partnership will give drivers hands-free guidance even when connectivity is lousy or not available. Drivers can use voice commands to interact with the map, add a stop en route, request points of interest and more.

“The number of consumers that make car-buying decisions based on in-car technology continues to grow,” said Sal Dhanani, Telenav co-president, automotive business unit. “Expanding our work with Alexa’s voice-based services to work offline allows us to provide consumers with technology-aided benefits at all times. Our collaboration with Amazon is another step in our efforts to enhance drivers’ safety as well as enrich the convenience of hands-free driving, no matter where drivers are headed.”

Roger C. Lanctot, director of mobility research for Strategy Analytics, said the Alexa integrations will change how drivers think about onboard navigation.

“Telenav is leveraging Alexa to revolutionize this application space,” he said.

Financial results for the Telenav’s fiscal quarter that ended Sept. 30 indicated that total revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2020 was $64.5 million, an increase of 39 percent compared with $46.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. Total cumulative connected units deployed to date is 16.1 million, and total cumulative auto units deployed is 25.8 million.

“Telenav delivered another solid quarter, with a five-year-high revenue level, and a significantly increased cash balance to $122 million,” said Co-Founder H.P. Jin in a November press release. “Further, we continued to make progress on our Connected Car Strategy, evident from our recent inorganic investments, and our announced initiatives with Microsoft and Amazon.”

In September, General Motors began offering owners of 2018 models or newer in the U.S. Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant software to control phones, navigation and streaming media. GM also said it would embed Alphabet’s Google technology into vehicle dashboards sold outside of China beginning in 2021.