This post on Ford Motor Company’s plans to incorporate a text reader as an option in its passenger cars is a precursor to more in-vehicle, speech-based activity. Call it the “Knight Rider” effect. Voice-activated cars have captured the public’s imagination for decades. Unfortunately automobile manufacturers rank somewhere behind wireless carriers in their willingness to incorporate a quality voice user interface into their mass market offerings.

Ford has first-hand knowledge of drivers’ interest in voice-activated services thanks to its experience with Sync (which was introduced in late 2007). Now its chairman will be a keynoter at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and, according the report in Bloomberg, according to Jim Buczkowski, Ford’s director of electronics, the company already “offers a message system on ‘a handful’ of phones that reads texts to drivers who push a button on the dash.

This hybrid approach, using a button on the steering column to invoke services on a wireless phone, circumnavigates the “battle for the button” that many wireless voice application providers are perparing for as they enter the battle for mobile market share. For safety reasons alone, the quest for “truly hands free” mobile communications will make this type of service initiation vital. In-vehicle applications include news reading, message origination and transcription and navigation – all ripe for ready adoption by commuters.

Categories: Articles

Tags: speech processing, mobile speech, Ford, in vehicle