Cerence has launched a new product that provides drivers with more information about the world around them. The hands-free offering has been dubbed Cerence Look, and it will first appear in the new Travel Knowledge feature in the MBUX voice assistant from Mercedes-Benz.
With Cerence Look, drivers will be able to ask about something outside the vehicle, and the in-car assistant will respond with basic information about that location. For example, drivers can use it to find out the name of a restaurant, or to learn more about a nearby landmark. The system leverages Cerence’s conversational speech recognition technology, so drivers do not need to use a specific wake word. Instead, they can ask “What is the name of that restaurant?” or “What is that café on my left?” while driving past a coffee shop and get the same response.
Cerence Look is designed to promote on-road safety, since drivers will be able to learn more about local points of interest without turning to a separate mobile device. The solution uses environment reconstruction and sensor data to determine the vehicle’s location and figure out what the driver is looking at when they pose a question.
“In a typical car setting, it can be challenging for drivers to gather information about the world around them without compromising their safety by pulling out their smartphones,” said Cerence EVP and Core Products GM Stefan Ortmanns. “Cerence Look solves for this, providing intuitive, multimodal interaction that, when combined with voice recognition, makes it easier and more natural than ever to engage with the automotive assistant and gain critical knowledge about the outside world.”
Cerence Look is not the only Cerence product built to deliver a better driving experience. The company introduced a news reader back in August, shortly after announcing a Cerence Pay feature that enables contactless in-car payments. Cerence also offers support for the what3words navigation system.
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