Amidst the gigantic leaps in improvement that we have seen for the electric mobility space comes a niche of advancement that we don’t often think of when it comes to motorcycles: Voice Assist technology.
Sure we don’t need it, but many manufacturers are already integrating voice assist into their own brand bikes – from Harley-Davidson’s integration of Android Auto on their Boom!™ Box GTS infotainment system (we thought we would have seen something on their new Pan America or perhaps the Livewire One, but H-D apparently had other plans), to reports that Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica is “working on having a device placed into a helmet to talk to a smartphone connected to the motorcycle.”
Suffice it to say that times are a-changing – and Cerence Inc., a company interested in AI technology, is capitalizing on the market by partnering with Micware, Co., Ltd. to create apps and platforms for Japanese motorcycle manufacturers.
Source: AutoFutures
finance Yahoo!, in particular, was specific about this collab benefitting ‘Japanese two-wheeled makers’ – so automatically we’re thinking Kawasaki, Yamaha and Honda – perhaps even Suzuki…though it’s been a while since we’ve seen anything stunningly advanced from them.
The reports from VoiceBot and finance Yahoo! state that “Cerence Ride uses the company’s speech recognition, natural language understanding, and speech signal enhancement to provide communications, navigation, entertainment, and vehicular information and control settings by voice.”
Micware contributes to the deal by sharing their knowledge of “navigation software and other digital tools software for two-wheelers”, with the deal purportedly “augmenting Micrware’s products with proprietary voice assistants powered by Cerence faster than would be feasible without the automotive AI giant.”
Essentially, two giants of the tech market have come together to give us cool stuff, faster.
Neat.
Source: AutoVision News
“The two-wheeler makers can brand the AI their own way and make it compatible with Android, iOS, or an operating system built into the vehicle depending on their needs,” says Takuma Segawa, Director of Micware.
“The integration of Micware’s navigation technologies and Cerence’s industry-leading voice interaction technologies will open up new possibilities for two-wheeler OEMs and their riders, and we are very excited about the collaboration,”
“With this collaboration as a first step, we are expanding our business in the two-wheeler market.”
“The explosive growth of the two-wheeler market presents an exciting opportunity to leverage our experience in the automotive market for an entirely new mobility experience,” adds Cerence senior vice president, Charles Kuai.
“We are excited to collaborate with Micware to deliver a wide range of intelligent voice experiences to riders around the world in partnership with Japanese two-wheeler makers.”
Maybe the brainchild of this team will complement the bikes, maybe not – either way, it’s pretty amazing that tech is at the point it is, and we look forward to seeing what comes out of this partnership, and how it will benefit the motorcycle community proper.
Be sure to stay tuned, we will let you know what happens on this thread as it comes down the pipeline; in the meantime, check out other recent newsies from our archives, and as always – stay safe on the twisties.