In this review, I look at the ATOTO CB6 CarPlay AI Box adapter. You can buy this chatGPT-enabled dongle for just $189.99 for the 8GB+128GB model on Amazon US – https://amzn.to/3EZfO3l, Amazon UK – https://amzn.to/4kbaE4t, and Amazon CA – https://amzn.to/3EXqHm5. Or you can buyt it from their official store for $244.90 – https://bit.ly/3QGEYWV.
TLDR: The ATOTO CB6 AI Box is one of the first to feature a real AI assistant powered by ChatGPT-4o. While it offers solid video performance, good wireless CarPlay and Android Auto functionality, and a feature-packed launcher, its lower-end Qualcomm 6115 chipset results in slower app performance and weak gaming capabilities. The DriveChat AI assistant is a promising addition but feels underwhelming due to its lack of integration with system controls and its reliance on an internet connection. If you’re looking for an affordable AI Box primarily for media playback and wireless connectivity, the CB6 offers good value—but don’t expect groundbreaking AI functionality just yet.
Since their introduction, the AI in AI Boxes has stood for Android Interface. They weren’t magical boxes that knew anything and everything you asked them. But that is set to change in 2025 with the first wave of AI Boxes featuring AI chatbot assistants. The CB6 from ATOTO is the first of possibly many to feature some kind of AI. So, is the CB6 adapter going to provide all the answers? Let’s find out.
In the box, you get a paper instruction manual and warranty information. There is the CB6 adapter itself, along with three power USB cables: one USB-A to USB-C and one USB-C to USB-C for more modern car ports. The third power cable features a power pass-through port to inject additional power into the adapter should your car’s port not supply sufficient power. Also included is a SIM card with a tiny 100MB data trial, allowing you to use a dedicated internet source instead of tethering a phone or relying on your car’s Wi-Fi network. This is a nice addition for experiencing the adapter’s AI bot function.
Features & Design
Looking at the adapter, its shape is semicircular with a square side housing the SIM and TF card slots, the USB port for power, and a pair of LED status lights to indicate power and operation. Underneath, there are passive cooling vents to keep the Qualcomm 6115 CPU, 8GB RAM, and 128GB storage cool. On top, a dotted texture covers the entire casing, with a circular ATOTO logo in the center surrounded by customizable LED lights to match your car’s interior.
Boot-Up & Main Menu
Boot-up time into the adapter’s main menu took 30 seconds. The menu is well-presented, featuring a variety of panels and functional widgets. The largest panel houses the Google Maps app, which is fully interactive. Beside this panel are widgets for media playback, shortcuts to toggle Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and mobile data, and a weather panel displaying detailed weather information. Users with higher-resolution displays can view two additional panels: one displaying the vehicle’s current speed and another featuring six customizable shortcuts to installed apps.
Down the side, a commonly seen dock provides time, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth statuses, four of the last used apps, and a button to toggle between the home screen and app icon view. On my 1920×800 resolution display, 14 apps were visible per screen, adjustable by altering the screen width setting in the hidden Android Developer menu.
The ATOTO CB6 comes with the most preinstalled apps I’ve seen on an AI box. This saves you the trouble of downloading apps from the Google Play Store, although you can still install any missing ones from there.
Pre-installed Apps
Launching test apps revealed the adapter’s lower-spec 6115 chipset, offering the slowest overall app launch time among my top 12 recorded AI boxes. Spotify was the slowest overall, while the CB6 performed average in launching Maps, YouTube, and Netflix. Benchmarking in 3D Mark and Geekbench ranked the CB6 among some 6125 AI boxes, yet launching certain games showed stuttering and frame rate drops, even in basic 3D games. This is not an AI box for gaming unless you stick to lightweight 2D titles.
What the CB6 lacks in app and game performance, it compensates for with general video performance. With an average audio delay of 72ms, it isn’t far off from my favorite video AI box. Its call delay in Android Auto was competitive as well, making these areas where the CB6 excels the most.
Wireless Apple CarPlay & Android Auto
CarPlay and Android Auto ran smoothly, with a quicker-than-average Bluetooth pairing time. The visual stream quality and aspect ratio were excellent, closely matching native wireless performance. With a 0.37s average call delay, the CB6 admirably handles wireless CarPlay and Android Auto.
DriveChat AI
The main unique selling point of this AI box is DriveChat, ATOTO’s AI platform that turns your CarPlay display into a ChatGPT-enabled assistant. Holding down your voice/call wheel button or pressing on the side dock home button will launch the DriveChat bot, which then begins to listen for your command. Powered by the ChatGPT-4o platform, DriveChat is more intelligent than most current smartphone assistants.
The CB6 doesn’t feature a large language model (LLM) built-in for small, common requests, so an internet connection is required for DriveChat to function truly. Additionally, the SwiftStone app must be downloaded onto your phone, and an account must be created to tailor the AI experience between basic and advanced models and types of AI chatbots. You can ask the bot mostly anything, and after a brief pause, it will begin typing out a response, followed by narrated audio using your chosen male or female voice profile set within the app.
While this is a good start toward integrating actual AI into an AI Box, its execution is slightly disappointing. My main frustration with DriveChat is that it doesn’t integrate fully with the AI Box experience. Integrating an LLM on the device could have helped with this. I could only ask DriveChat a handful of commands, from closing apps to turning on hotspot or Wi-Fi. Although these are handy hands-free requests whilst driving, it’s a shame the chatbot isn’t able to dive a little deeper with its smarts. I couldn’t ask it to load up any Android apps, nor could I instruct it to turn other Settings options. More basic tasks would have really helped whilst driving and make running a complex AI Box experience on a CarPlay display a little more streamlined.
Each ChatGPT request is handled online, meaning the CB6 must be connected to the internet at all times. Additionally, only one request can be sent at a time by pressing my steering-wheel voice button, and it didn’t seem to listen for follow-ups, preventing an actual conversation from occurring. DriveChat is a nice feature, but it could have been implemented much deeper. While this functionality may no doubt improve over time, ATOTO needs to act quickly before other brands introduce superior solutions in 2025.
My Impressions
Overall, the ATOTO CB6’s performance and capabilities reflect its budget-friendly price. It may not launch apps as instantly or handle basic 3D gaming that well, but if you’re looking for an affordable AI box that plays video smoothly, handles wireless CarPlay and Android Auto effectively, and includes a less integrated AI chatbot/assistant, the CB6 offers good value for your money and is worth considering—especially if its best-performing features align with your needs.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Brief overview
0:31 – Unboxing
1:04 – Features.& design
1:57 – Boot-up & menu interface
4:26 – Hardware spec
5:21 – Google Maps
5:43 – YouTube
6:56 – Netflix
7:30 – Spotify
8:13 – BT lock
8:56 – FindApps
9:17 – OTA updates
9:41 – Gaming
11:13 – TikTok
11:49 – Wireless Apple CarPlay
13:52 – Wireless Android Auto
15:22- TF card media playback
17:04 – Settings
17:37 – Split screen mode
19:17 – DriveChat ChatGPT
20:21 – My Impressions
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