Nuance's Dragon Drive Adds Voice Biometrics and New Virtual Assistant Service

Nuance Communications, Inc.

today announced that its Dragon Drive connected car platform now features first-of-its-kind voice biometrics capabilities and Dragon Drive Daily Update, a new virtual assistant service providing personalized content to the driver. Combined, these new features expand the already powerful holistic voice and content offering that gives automakers the ability to deliver a safer, smarter connected car experience. Nuance is also expanding the Dragon Drive platform with the Dragon Drive Mobile application that gives automakers the ability to keep their consumers connected to content and apps inside and outside the car. Nuance's expanded Dragon Drive voice and app content platform is a 2015 CES Innovation Award Honoree. Personalizing the Connected Car Experience Nuance is the first to give automakers the ability to integrate voice biometrics as part of their connected infotainment offering – providing drivers with an easy way to personalize their in-car experience. With a spoken passphrase, the underlying Dragon Drive platform provides content and information based on that driver's preferences, including connected music stations, navigation routes, traffic conditions, calendar, parking, fuel options along the route, and much more. Further personalizing the connected car experience, Nuance is also unveiling Dragon Drive Daily Update, a virtual assistant service optimized for infotainment systems that provides drivers with their own unique ‘update' upon entering the vehicle. Drivers can customize the Daily Update feature to deliver up-to-the-minute news headlines, traffic, weather, sports scores, calendar updates, and much more. As soon as the driver starts the car, the Daily Update feature automatically delivers relevant information and content through a humanlike voice created with Nuance's leading text-to-speech. For example, Daily Update can provide drivers with their anticipated commute time to work as soon as they start the car, followed by the day's weather and the previous night's sports scores. “The next frontier for connected cars will be contextualizing and personalizing content,” said Jeffrey Hannah, Director at automotive research company SBD. “In order to enable this, car makers are rushing to find innovative new ways of detecting who is actually driving their cars and proactively delivering the information they need, when they need it. Nuance's voice biometrics and Daily Update feature will play an important role in enabling a much more relevant infotainment experience." Keeping Drivers Connected with Dragon Drive Mobile Nuance is also announcing the expansion of its Dragon Drive platform with the Dragon Drive Mobile application, which bridges the gap between the connected experiences in the car and on the smartphone. Dragon Drive Mobile, supporting iOS and Android, gives automakers the ability to build a mobile app that integrates directly with their customized and branded in-car infotainment systems. The app delivers the same app experience on the phone and in the car for navigation, POI, music, calendar, dictation and more – all while taking on the heavier processing tasks right on the mobile device. In addition, drivers can set their music preferences, navigation and POI information using the app on their phone, and upon entering the vehicle, the same music and navigation information is accessible via voice on the head unit – totally seamless to the driver. Once connected, the application locks the driver's smartphone and transfers all interactions to the in-car head unit screen, lessening the potential for distracting interactions with the phone. “With the ongoing challenges surrounding Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto, many automakers are looking for new ways to offer seamless smartphone integration and utilize the smartphone for data processing in the car while retaining control of the overall user experience,” said Hannah. “This has opened the door for Nuance to offer a turn-key solution for bringing the driver's content safely into the car." “We're giving automakers more control over the connected car system they build and deliver, while giving consumers more control over their individual experience within that brand,” said Arnd Weil, vice president and general manager, Nuance automotive. “Our platform is open, flexible, and delivers content from the world's leading content providers.” Nuance's technology is deployed in more than 100 million in-car and 50 million portable navigation systems worldwide, providing consumers with a safer, smarter in-car experience. Click here to learn more about Dragon Drive.