Nuance Dragon Drive Added to Select Chrysler Models
Nuance Communications and Chrysler Group have announced that Nuance's Dragon Drive automotive-grade voice platform is now part of Chrysler Group's new Uconnect Access services.
Uconnect Access is featured in the 2013 Ram 1500 and SRT Viper, providing a range of services, including voice texting and live and local connected search capabilities. Uconnect Access is the first such service from a U.S. automaker that introduces cloud-based, hands-free, voice-activated texting.
Uconnect Access uses Nuance's embedded and connected natural language understanding voice technology to give drivers connectivity to people, information, and content, in the car and in the cloud. Uconnect Access leverages Nuance's cloud-based Dragon Drive Messaging service to let users send text messages, as well as receive and respond to them, from all contacts in their phonebook. All incoming text messages can be read aloud with Nuance's text-to-speech capabilities, and from there drivers can dictate a response if needed.
Uconnect Access integrates Bing's live and local search engine to find local businesses. A user can say, "Where is the best Italian restaurant?" and results are provided along with business information and ratings, as well as voice-enabled navigation to the chosen location. Dragon Drive also lets users speak navigation addresses naturally, so the house number, street, and city can all be spoken in one breath.
"Consumers demand in-car connectivity and content, but it must be accessible in an intelligent and intuitive way as a natural extension of the infotainment system," said Arnd Weil, vice president and general manager of automotive for Nuance Mobile, in a statement. "Dragon Drive's unique embedded-connected platform gives automakers like Chrysler the flexibility to deliver voice-enabled message dictation, content, and information regardless of where it exists, in the car, on a device, or in the cloud."
Chrysler's Uconnect Access services are currently available with a Uconnect 8.4A and 8.4AN system in the U.S. on the 2013 RAM 1500 and 2013 SRT Viper and Viper GTS. Uconnect Access is available as a subscription service, currently available as part of a six- to 12-month trial period, with pricing plans to be put into place in 2013.