Meet Bob the Talking Toyota
I ran into a chatty Toyota at the Washington, D.C. Auto Show. He didn't know much about podcasts. But he was polite and fun.
At the Washington, D.C. Auto Show this week, I was there to check out digital dashboards and podcasts. But I also made a new friend - Bob the Talking Toyota.
Talking cars are nothing new. Remember K.I.T.T. from the NBC show Knight Rider? I always found his voice annoying whenever he talked with David Hasselhoff’s character. “Thank You, Michael.”
Trivia Question: What did K.I.T.T. stand for? Answer at the end of the column.
Like David Hasselhoff, I too have a history of talking to my car. I used to use the Amazon Echo Auto, a small device no larger than a pack of Trident chewing gum. Alexa would call up my favorite radio stations and podcasts. Then once I got Apple CarPlay, I switched to Siri. She now plays music and podcasts for me in my car.
As for Bob, Toyota set up an Aida camera on the dash of a bZ4X. When I entered the vehicle, the camera activated with a verbal greeting. Bob even noticed I was wearing a vest with a logo that said L.L. Bean.
Since I was there at the Auto Show to test the podcast user experience in cars, I decided to strike up a conversation with Bob. Watch my video and you’ll see what happened.
While Bob was pleasant and I enjoyed our chat, the overall podcast experience in the bZ4X was frustrating. I could access Apple Music and Amazon Music. And finding the radio was a breeze. But the dashboard experience was overwhelming compared to other vehicles on the convention floor. The bZ4X system had just too many things happening in such a small space.
At least I made a new friend.
Thanks Bob! Nice to meet you.
Trivia Answer: K.I.T.T. stands for Knight Industries Two Thousand.
John Wordock served as Executive Editor and SVP for Podcasting at Westwood One from 2019 to 2024, helping build Cumulus Podcast Network into a top ten network and top channel on Apple Podcasts. He also used to be Executive Producer for podcasts at The Wall Street Journal until 2019. He now runs his own podcast consulting company, John Wordock Media LLC.