PSA Promises Smart Assistant in Vehicles by 2020
The PSA Group has promised to have a smart assistant in its vehicles within the next two years.
It has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Silicon Valley start-up SoundHound, a specialist in artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language voice recognition technology, to make this happen by 2020. SoundHound claims its deep meaning understanding technology can, like a human being, instantly answer multiple questions asked in a single sentence.
SoundHound has already worked with Korean manufacturer Hyundai on developing a personal assistant voice control system that was showcased at the 2018 CES.
It also claims to be developing voice and AI integration algorithms to tailor the “world’s fastest speech recognition technology and seamless natural language understanding capability” to PSA’s vehicles. The new generation voice assistant is hoped to enable Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall customers to converse naturally with their vehicle.
The makers further claims the digital personal assistant will be able to act on its own to perform a variety of tasks, such as finding a restaurant that meets several criteria (e.g. open on Sunday evening), activating vehicle functions and launching connected services. Other features claimed include the ability, with a single voice command, drivers will be able to simultaneously regulate temperature, ventilation and the direction of air conditioning.
— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_
