Speech recognition in cars

How to manage the distractions of life while on the road has always been a problem due to safety. But speech recognition in cars may provide the answers to that problem. Safe driving protocols do require us not to pay heed to text messages, emails and phone calls while driving, but that’s now how things function in reality. Now, with speech recognition technology, we can deal with all these distractions without taking our eyes off the road. Speech recognition technology can keep the public safe while driving, saving us from the need to look down at and handle our devices, while still allowing us to perform the tasks we need to. It allows us to send text messages and get directions without taking out eyes off the road, providing a heads-up display. The companies that are leading the way in using voice recognition technology in cars include Nuance, Google and Apple.

Different companies offering speech recognition in cars

Apple’s CarPlay makes a pared down version iOS available in a car’s touch-screen display. All you need to do is connect your iPhone to your car and it replaces your car’s entertainment system with Apple’s software. Siri is fully functional in CarPlay. Pressing the volume button present on the steering wheels makes Siri available to assist you, helping you navigate, switch playlists and send text messages. With Apple recently announcing that it is making Siri available to developers, you could soon be using Skype, WhatsApp and booking reservations in a restaurant all while driving in your car, using CarPlay.

Google Android Auto is another in-car speech recognition system that will make it easy to perform various tasks while driving, without compromising on your safety.

Nuance is not as well-known as Android or Apple, but they are trailblazers when it comes to in-car voice recognition technology. They have what they call a Dragon Drive platform, where their Dragon Drive Automotive Assistant takes Nuance’s connectivity components, cloud and voice, and offers an exhaustive collection of services and features.

The Dragon Drive has a conversational voice recognition interface, able to process the natural patterns of the voice far more sophisticated than are its competitors, making for a much more enjoyable experience than the mechanical Alexa or Siri. It even incorporates capabilities of bio metrics, recognizing the identity of the user who is speaking. It also incorporates a daily update feature, learning your behaviors, meeting your needs accordingly.

Overall

It looks like speech recognition capabilities will be used in cars for a lot more than just entertainment. They will evolve, if they haven’t already, into virtual personal assistants. In-car speech recognition is headed in ever more advanced terrain. But its focus appears to be divided equally between convenience and safety. However, drivers would still do well to remember that speech recognition is not the same as “distraction free,” no matter what promises and claims speech recognition companies make. We still have to focus on our driving and keep our eyes firmly on the road.

Check out some other industries integrating speech recognition.

Speech Recognition in Grocery Shopping      Speech Recognition in the Travel Industry

Speech Recognition in Customer Service        The Future of Speech Recognition Technology