Earlier this year Anker announced its Google Assistant Powered 12V accessory socket USB Charger/ voice assistant module the Roav Bolt. The Bolt plugs into your 12v socket in your car and gives you 2 USB power outlets and Voice integration with Google Assistant.
The best bit? It’s now on the market.
The Bolt acts as a bridge between your phone and your car’s (built in or after market) Bluetooth receiver to give you voice control of your device and sound output via your built in amplifier and speakers. Of course you’ll need Bluetooth in your car for this to work.
Once installed and set up, the Roav Bolt will give you access to Assistant and everything it currently do. Want to play music, initiate a call or commence navigation on your phone? Assistant (and the Roav Bolt) can do it all.
Traditionally, Anker has not retailed in Australia, however there is now an authorised reseller operating in Australia myanker.com.au. The Roav Bolt is not currently listed on the site, but we’re more hopeful than we would have previously have been.
We’d be interested in testing out how the Roav Bolt works, especially with an Android phone in a dock running Android Auto at the same time….. it could be an interesting experiment.
Are you interested in retrofitting Google Assistant in to your Go Go mobile? Let us know below.
Love to see an update on this for Aussies. My older car is a pain without Bluetooth and I think this is the solution. fingers crossed.
a great idea
Thank God that someone has donee this. I was looking at fitting a Google mini in my car until recently managed to use my phone to broadcast from my car to my home some 15klms away. The more l use Google assistant the more l look at installing more wifi Google assistant modules.l will be looking at purchasing one of these devices.
Google Assistant and Google Maps are badly integrated on an Android phone. Many Maps functions cannot be activated using Assistant. And if you ask for music, the maps will close. So the useful thing for me about the Roav Bolt is that it decouples Assistant from Maps, fixing the music problem but leaving Google Maps without good voice commands. I hope Google just fixes the problem with Android Google Maps and Assistant integration.
I don’t see the point of this device if you are already using Android Auto on your phone and is connected to your car. My device has no issue picking up my voice while windows down and music playing.
Looking forward to this…
And possibly easily transfers to other vehicles if u have more than 1 car..
Hopefully it doesn’t cost too much.
If your car already has Bluetooth why do you need this? Why don’t you just connect your phone to the Bluetooth. Am I missing something?
It gives you a farfield mic and apparently better detection while music is playing…
Some cars (mine included) don’t allow for media playback natively through the Bluetooth connection. It is restricted to phone calls only. This may alleviate that drama.
This sounds genuinely awesome 🙂
That sounds really interesting. Especially for those cars that have just missed out on Android auto or even Apple Carplay.
I’d be interested in testing it.
Can’t wait to get my hands on one of these devices. I’m tired of yelling to my Pixel 3. If these can better detect voice over car noise, then that’s a win.