“We’ve designed very specific acoustic models … so that the system is robust to noise. “On a handset with a close-talk microphone, that’s clearly different than when you’re driving in a vehicle with a far-talk microphone, and you have cabin noise and other noise that gets picked up,” he said. One reason is that the car environment presents unique challenges smartphone VR applications don’t have to face, explains Brian Radloff, director of automotive solutions for Nuance. But even as smartphones become prevalent and more automakers take a “hybrid” approach to connectivity – using an onboard modem for critical services like crash notification and the driver’s connected smartphone to, say, stream Pandora – cloud-based VR will likely be tied into the car’s onboard system for some time. “But, certainly, there’s some advantage to and that will continue as smartphone use grows.”Ĭhrumka added that Dragon Drive! works with either a smartphone-tethering approach like Ford’s Sync App Link feature or an embedded cellular modem a la OnStar.
Jim Buczkowski, director of electronics research for Ford, points out that although Sync Services uses a voice channel, the feature works with any dumb phone via Bluetooth and doesn’t require a smartphone with a data plan. While VR has incrementally improved, it’s still the tech feature that’s most irksome to car owners. Dragon Drive! will go over a data channel so we can capture higher bandwidth, which leads to better accuracy.” “With Sync Services, everything goes over a voice channel. “Ford Sync has onboard for Bluetooth, audio and navigation, but when you access Sync Services such as Traffic Directions and Information, you‘re talking to off-board voice recognition.” Chrumka points out that there’s an important distinction. There’s already a blending of on-board and off-board VR in some cars, noted Boyadjis. And it’s not even the first off-board VR application. But Dragon Drive! isn’t completely off-board, and no automotive VR engine probably ever will be. “We’re taking that same capability and extending it to inside the vehicle,” he said.
And allows drivers do it through more conversational interaction, meaning you won’t have to speak like a robot when giving the car commands.Įd Chrumka, Nuance’s senior product manager for connected car services, told Wired that Dragon Drive! is essentially an automotive-grade version of the company’s Dragon Go! smartphone application. And that your next car may actually understand what you’re saying.ĭragon Drive! is designed to make accessing connected-car functions – from finding the cheapest fuel nearby to keeping up with your Facebook feed – safe and more convenient. So when Nuance announced this week that it’s moving in-car VR to the cloud with its new Dragon Drive! platform, it signaled a major shift in the technology. “They have the majority worldwide of all automotive voice recognition systems.” As Nuance goes, so goes automotive VR. “It’s not really a question,” Boyadjis added. Nuance, the company behind the popular Dragon suite of speech-to-text software, is the VR provider of choice for automotive and, in fact, dominates the market. “There’s a huge push right now to make voice recognition better.” Boyadjis, an analyst who covers automotive for IHS Automotive. Power & Associates’Initial Quality Study is voice recognition errors,” said Mark C. “One of the biggest elements that pop up on J.D. Car companies often play the VR card when grilled by government officials and safety advocates on how drivers are supposed to control all the latest dashboard gadgets while keeping their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.īut anyone who has tried most VR systems in cars will tell you that they rank somewhere below, say, Sri Lankan tech support in terms of two-way verbal comprehension. And it’s become the poster child for off-board VR – whether most users realize they’re talking to the cloud or not.Ĭonsidering all the tech that now comes in cars, drivers desperately need a Siri riding shotgun. But in the same way that Apple has helped refine other technology interactions that were first to market, Siri now personifies voice recognition for many people. CALIFORNIA, USA – Cloud-based voice recognition (VR) on consumer electronics devices didn’t start with Siri.