HERE expands voice assistant capabilities to become the Siri of the automotive industry

When you are driving in bad weather, the vehicle's voice assistant can help you quickly find a nearby shelter; when your electric car is running low on power, the voice assistant can also help you find the nearest electric car charging station. Using natural voice to complete mobile travel with a conversational experience is no longer a high-tech plot in movies.

HERE Technologies, a mapping and positioning service provider, and Cerence have recently deepened their collaboration to integrate HERE’s intelligent positioning solution into the Cerence Drive solution to form an AI-driven mobile travel assistant solution.

This voice assistant can learn the driver's preferences and driving habits through AI to further customize the in-car experience. HERE also provides relevant data based on location information to provide relevance to the driver's preferences, allowing the system to provide more targeted suggestions. For example, when the system detects that the driver frequently goes to a gas station open 24 hours a day to refuel diesel, the voice assistant will provide suggestions based on such usage preferences. In addition, HERE has also integrated 3D maps into Cerence's multimodal in-car experience, with multiple technologies such as eye tracking and voice recognition.

As the popularity of mobile travel assistants continues to rise, accurate positioning information is indispensable for drivers. In the future, cars will no longer just play the role of a means of transportation, but will communicate with drivers more and provide more practical suggestions. Global automakers such as Audi, BMW and Daimler all use the voice control system jointly developed by HERE and Cerence. Users can access HERE maps, apps and other in-vehicle infotainment projects through voice.

In October 2019, Nuance, an intelligent voice company, spun off its automotive business and established Cerence. Nuance is the voice technology supplier behind Apple's Siri. The main purpose of spinning off Cerence is to create a new generation of automotive voice software. Cerence is mainly composed of Nuance's original Greater China team and automotive business, and currently has two R&D centers in Germany and China.