Voice Assistants – All about auto

Integration with the vehicle is essential

• A recent survey has found that voice assistants are quite widely used in the vehicle, but I think that until they are properly integrated, they will be little more than an occasionally useful gimmick.
• Voicebot.ai’s most recent survey (see here) and here) has found that 117m US adults have tried a voice assistant in the vehicle and that 77m use it at least once per month.
• Of these 77m 74% use the assistant to make a telephone call (using Bluetooth hands-free), 50% use it to set navigation with 41% using it to send a text.
• Voice is reasonably widespread vehicles but these are not the digital assistants that people know on smart speakers but are in reality simply voice to text systems.
• There is no AI behind these systems but merely programming meaning that the command must be given in a specific syntax or else the instruction will fail.
• This makes complete sense as:
  • First, use cases: The top three use cases are all functions routinely carried out in the vehicle and are easy to instruct and program.
  • Second, penetration: The penetration of the digital assistants in the vehicle is very low outside of the smartphone that user brings in with him.
  • Consequently, the vast majority of the usage that voicebot.ai is recording must logically be of the voice controllers installed and programmed by the OEM’s or the Tier 1s.
• The other issue with digital assistants brought into the vehicle is that they have no access to any functionality that is not present in the device within which they reside.
• For example, one cannot ask Alexa or Google to roll down the windows or to navigate using the vehicles navigation system.
• This level of integration is currently only available in Byton’s vehicles and even this is limited by commands given to Alexa being routed through Byton’s own voice assistant.
• Fully integrating Alexa and Google into the vehicle raises all sorts of strategic issues for the OEMs as these assistants will have access to the digital sensor data that the vehicle generates.
• Access to digital sensor data is the one control point that the OEMs have and should they relinquish it, they will have very little digital differentiation and risk becoming handsets on wheels.
• Users are going to want to integrate the digital experience that they have in the vehicle with the rest of their digital lives and RFM research finds that it is from this integration that most value can be derived for anyone offering digital services within the vehicle.
• This is why OEMs need to drive engagement with the infotainment unit as this will put them in the driving seat when it comes to negotiating with the digital ecosystems when it comes to data integration.
• Creating a compelling user experience as well as an engaging voice experience will be key to that challenge.
• The OEMs have a lot to do.