Ford offers natter-interface car software in Europe
Now Mondeo man can stay hands-on like the Hoff
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Ford will offer voice-operated controls on its European models, using software provided by Nuance, it was announced yesterday.
Nuance, which merged with ScanSoft in 2005, offers a range of voice-control and text-to-speech solutions. The company's VoCon® speech recognition and RealSpeak™ text-to-Speech platforms are being integrated into the Blaupunkt human-machine interface electronics (HMI).
“Nuance has a long history of working with Ford,” according to Steve Chambers, NUance exec.
“Now with the advanced speech technology in the Blaupunkt navigation solution, we are able to offer drivers a safer alternative... drivers no longer need to take their eyes off the road or their hands from the wheel to dial their phone, enter an address to the navigation system or control their audio system.”
HMI with Nuance software will be available on the Ford C-MAX and Ford Focus starting in December, followed later by the Ford Galaxy, Ford Mondeo and Ford S-MAX. In addition to controlling the car's hardware, it uses text-to-speech for giving navigation directions.
You talk to the car; it talks back to you. There could be a series of TV ads in this for David Hasselhoff, though he seems to have been supplanted from the upcoming Knight Rider movie. There's no word of any associated leather-pants promotions or anything. ®
COMMENTS
Say
Say they obviously did not learn from the Japanese when they installed this device on their cars as an extra of the moment as they normally do !
Most end users were so tired of being nagged by their mobile play toys that the speakers attached to the device were usually permanently disconnected for some unfathomable reason ?
Wonder why...
...they didn't use the same Microsoft powered software as in the US models? Or better, why didn't they use the non-MS version the Euro models will apparently have in the US models?
Because we all know how reliable Microsoft software can be. Yet Ford are proudly telling us all that it's a Microsoft system in their adverts here. Sure makes me want to rush out and buy...anything BUT a new Ford/Lincoln/Mercury.
[click][bing-bing]Play artist Dave Matthews.
...pause...
"General protection fault in MSVOXCTL.DLL. Please take your vehicle to the nearest Ford stealership to be rebooted."
Classic cars are looking better and better...
My new model Mondeo has this already
It comes along with the integrated Bluetooth handsfree kit.
It's pretty good too. Controls the radio, cd changer, climate control, phone and satnav with simple prompted voice commands. No training needed, either for the software or the user.
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