The Hoff may be forever linked with board shorts and a pre-Tommy Lee Pamela Anderson to many. For me, though, it will be a younger Hasselhoff driving a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that had a sardonic sense of humour. Since then I have dreamed of having a car that would not only assist me in heroic situations, but also answer questions and do my bidding. Now, there’s Dashbot.

Well, there’s almost Dashbot.

What is Dashbot?

The Dashbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) adapter that you can add to any vehicle.

“Ah but, will it fit in my ’71 Beetle?” I hear you ask. Yes, yes it will.

As long as you’ve got a car stereo with at least a cassette player, you’re golden. With this gadget you don’t need Android Auto or Apple CarPlay tech.

Dashbot brains

It’s able to integrate with whatever you’re driving as, like the Amazon Echo Dot, the Dashbot is practically a smart microphone that links up with a smartphone app.

The app is equipped with built-in support for a range of popular audio services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music and Soundcloud.

This all means that you can get to your playlists and podcasts without taking your hands off the wheel. Thanks to its open API, other services, such as Tidal (hopefully) should soon follow.
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You can also dictate texts to named contacts and bring up navigation via voice commands.

Ask Alexa

You also get Amazon Alexa support built-in. So, whatever you fancy asking the Echo, you can ask of Dashbot.

In my short time with the Echo Dot I had it telling me jokes, playing music, giving me news updates.

You can do all that with this nifty gadget too. I particularly like this as Alexa has been the best assistant I’ve used as far as recognising natural speech goes.

How to get Dashbot

If you fancy a female KITT then all you have to do is back the Kickstarter campaign.

The good news is that the campaign goal has already been smashed. It actually has had double of what it needed pledged.

Pledge $49 or more and you’ll get your own Dashbot in July.

If your car lacks Bluetooth, you’ll have to shell out a little extra (US$65) for the Retro Pack. This includes FM radio and cassette adapters.