Hyundai pitches voice-activated driving assistant at CES

Predictive in-car voice recognition to rival Android and Google will showcase Hyundai’s infotainment future at CES.

Hyundai will display the latest in car voice recognition at the upcoming CES show. Pic: Supplied.

“Hi Hyundai” could replace “OK Google” and “Hey Siri” for some drivers from next year. Voice recognition is the main talking point for Hyundai at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with the launch of the first in-car proactive assistant able to predict the driver’s needs and make suggestions based on them.

The “Intelligent Personal Agent” will be rolled out in new Hyundai models from 2019 and will look to bridge the gap between smartphone connectivity and the ability to operate vehicle features.

Hyundai’s voice recognition cockpit will display the company’s future infotainment direction. Picture: Supplies

Drivers can operate typical voice-enabled features such as the mobile phone but the Hyundai software extends to vehicle operations such as the sunroof, aircon controls and door locks and, with the appropriate app, control of in-home functions.

Hyundai’s director of infotainment Paul Choo says the future is based on communication.

“Sophisticated voice recognition and AI integration are core to effectively providing drivers with the massive content and data that future connected vehicles have to offer,” Choo says.

Choo says the Intelligent Personal Agent sets itself with its “multiple-command recognition” function.

“When the user says, ‘Tell me what the weather will be like tomorrow and turn off the lights in our living room,’ the system recognises two separate commands in the same sentence and completes each task separately,” he says.

Conversing with your car is the next thing in connectivity, according to Hyundai. Picture: Supplied

The voice recognition software is based on an artificial intelligence and conversational intelligence platform developed by Silicon Valley based company SoundHound.

When activated, the software relays the driver’s voice commands or questions to SoundHound’s AI server to search for the requested information.

The CES demonstration of the Intelligent Personal Agent will use a futuristic car cockpit equipped with the feature. The system is activated by saying: “Hi, Hyundai.”