Amazon’s first Alexa device for your car, the Echo Auto, is currently only available for purchase by invitation. Lucky customers with an invite will get 50% off the retail price and pay only $24.99. Some of those early adopters listed their Echo Autos on eBay last week and the first of those auctions just ended at $162.50, with another currently going for $172.50. That’s quite a hefty profit and a sign that people are eager to get their hands on the new Alexa device.
Several more Amazon Echo Autos have popped up on eBay since those first few appeared last week. This could be a sign that Amazon has ramped up invitations or, more likely, it’s just past invited owners being swayed to list their devices by the potential profit to be made. Some Amazon Echo Autos currently on eBay haven’t even been opened yet. Amazon’s limited rollout is likely intended to work out the last few kinks with the new device before it’s made available to everyone. As long as sales are limited, resellers are sure to profit.
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I don’t understand what kinks there could be. How is this different from any other Alexa device besides the internet connection?
I would say, various flavors of BlueTooth might mean reduced functionality etc. Besides that, I really have no idea.
I run an ordinary echo in the car and the big problem, is that voice recognition is disrupted by car noise, so you have to shout several times sometimes, and that really interferes with concentration. There are also power supply issues.
I hope Amazon tracked the serial or MAC of the devices and disables them. Disgusting profiteering.
Bananas
Relax. Lol, if it auctioned for that price, the demand is reflected. Dont blame the entrepreneur. It would be different if they listed it for $150. Are you mad at the buyer for being so impatient for the official roll out that they are willing to pay 6x the retail price?
The echo autos on eBay are mostly auction listings as you can see from the links that Elias posted.
That means the seller puts it up for auction (typically at 99 cents to start) and then interested parties place bids until the auction ends.
There is no disgusting profiteering because the seller does not set the final sale price – the buyer does.
You could call the buyer foolish for choosing to pay so much for the product – that’s a reasonable position that I would probably agree with.
But you cannot call the seller someone who is engaging in “disgusting profiteering” because he has no say or any influence on the final sale price.
I can’t believe that it’s 2019 and people still do not understand how an auction works.
Most of the buyers are probably reviewers with YouTube channels, or forums who want to review it first and get more clicks and probably make all there money back.
I simply don’t understand the purpose of this invention. It seems like it’s just another object inside of a vehicle that is the subject of distracted driving, which as we know is a significant problem on the roads today. Just because something can be done, doesn’t mean it should be done. Even Albert Einstein expressed guilt regarding his facilitation in the development of the atomic bomb. “I made one great mistake in my life… when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made…”
Congrats you compared mass genocide to a device meant on curbing distracted driving by using your voice.
Is the word mass needed to describe genocide?