Car Companions

This New Species Of Ai-powered Voice Assistants Could Build Deep Emotional Connectivity Between Humans And Machines.

- Nidhi Singal

IMAGINE THIS. You spot a beautiful locality while driving your car, but instead of checking the location on your map or tagging the place, you simply ask your car’s voice assistant what this place is and get accurate information in real time. Similarly, you simply look at one car window and ask the assistant to close it, and it will do so by tracking your movement. From closing the sunroof to adjusting cabin temperature, from identifying in-car warning signals to displaying relevant information in real time on a car’s windshield – all these and more will be part of your experience when you have a car-compatible, voice-powered assistant riding with you. None of this is far-fetched sci-fi stuff. Innovators and car manufacturers are working overtime to usher in tomorrow’s technology at the earliest.

Voice tech in cars has been around since 2004 when IBM and Honda Motor came up with an in-vehicle speech-recognition system. A decade-and-a-half later, the use of voice assistants in vehicles has simply skyrocketed as smartphone owners are mostly using Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. But there is more to it. From March this year, the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant will be rolled out in select countries. The onboard voice assistant will explain and activate all sorts of car functions such as switching on high-beam assistance, providing information on current status (oil level and so on), giving fuel-saving driving tips and warning drivers if required.