Nuance Communications, a Nasdaq listed specialist in artificial intelligence (AI), has announced that it is providing automotive-grade speech recognition for Geely. This comes as the Chinese carmaker embarks upon a joint venture with Proton to jointly develop vehicles for sale in Southeast Asia and beyond.
The US company says that this marks the first time any speech recognition provider has built AI-powered speech solutions specifically for Southeast Asia. Nuance also collaborated with Daimler to develop and power the latest Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) multimedia system.
Through their joint venture, Geely will provide Proton with a set of vehicle platform technologies, including Nuance’s AI-powered speech solutions built specifically for the cars. Last month, Proton secured the license to produce and sell three Geely models for the ASEAN market – the Boyue (Proton X70), the SX11 B-segment SUV and yet to be unveiled VF11 MPV. The agreement covers Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand markets.
Working with Geely, Nuance leveraged its Dragon Drive connected car platform to develop a speech solution comprised of automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding and text to speech capabilities optimised for use in ASEAN, with a focus on recognition and accuracy for Malaysian-accented English, also known colloquially as Manglish.
The solution also provides a specialised, voice-powered user interface and experience that includes in-vehicle controls like air conditioning, car windows, and sunroof; music control; navigation; and content search for points of interest, music and weather. Voice command is one of the X70’s headline features, as sampled by prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad here.
“We’re proud to be part of this historic joint venture between Geely and Proton, which is sure to transform the automotive market in China and Southeast Asia. This represents a significant step forward in our efforts to partner with automakers in the region, and we look forward to leveraging our presence to expand our support for Geely and Proton as they begin their work together,” said Stefan Ortmanns, executive VP and GM at Nuance Automotive.
“Part of the goal of our joint venture with Proton is to bring more advanced and innovative cars and enhanced mobility to the Southeast Asia region, and technology innovation in the car is a big part of that. It’s clear that AI-powered speech recognition will have a significant role to play, of course in today’s vehicles, but also in the car of the future. Our work with Nuance is extremely important as we work toward that future,” said Yang Jun, Proton’s VP of engineering.
Nuance Automotive specialises in conversational AI tech for cars. With the Dragon Drive platform, the company claims to offer a deeply integrated, hybrid solution that can be customised to become a smart automotive assistant that is seamlessly integrated into the user’s connected ecosystem. Today, Dragon Drive ships globally in more than 200 million cars across more than 40 languages. Customers include Audi, BMW, Daimler, Fiat, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Toyota and China’s SAIC.
If you haven’t realised, even within Malaysia, English sounds different when spoken by different ethnic groups – let’s hope all styles are covered. Hi Ploton, I want ladio and akon.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Hi Proton, me wanna go projek wif makwe
Feel and look much better than xc90.
Manglish viral to the world
Focus on the thing which is the quality and product knowledge, not gimmicks like voice recognition. What consumers facing right now is the service centre have no idea what is the root cause of the problem encountered.
P1 gets Mesidis AI resource, while Mesidis gets elements of P1 Infinity Weave grille onto their new GLE. The partnerships r alredi reaping profits so fast.
P1, Mesidis, Geely, VolvoCar, VolvoTucks, Lotus > all
When looking again, what wud be nice is if they replace the silver dash panels on highest trim with wood trim. Cengal or meranti wud look fantabulous on it.
Unker please lah. You want that 1990s era wood panel look, you buy Camry lah.
XC90 la. Not Camly…
Fake wood trim like on Camry of cuz suits unker lar. But if use real cengal or meranti wood, maybe with open pores, then it becomes more hi end not cheapsakte like Camry.
Shud get frm our MIMOS hav the tech oredy.
why go so far, pay so much to US company …
MIMOS is fast asleep. They are so incompetent that they even lost Jaring, Malaysia’s first and largest ISP. This is because they tidur. Literally tidur. When world was moving towards HSBB, they were fast asleep and refused to upgrade
So better get China or US products. At least they update according to times.
a miracle MIMOS still in existence
Hi Ploton, I want ladio and akon.
hmmmm…. to play Akon song or to on Aircon?
P1 can brand their AI voice recog system as PBUX or PBX. PBX was previously known for usage as telco xchange that optimises connectivity by sharing resources. Veli apt on what P1-Mesidis-Geely has achieved here.
Thank China brains and Geely brains. Chariman Li did in 6 months what our local CEOs could not do in 20 years.
Stop replying my comment with ur nonsensical and pure bollocks drivel. Keep ur lies within ur own nonsense copy pasta comments. Tenkiu veli mucho.
Hope it will recognize and adjust the air cond temperature when I say ‘sibeh hot leh…’
Ek proton hangpa nak ghi KFC melawati sat.
Just add LAH
Manglish
Eh Ploton,
Up Air Con. (air conditioning)
Slow sound. (music)
Go mamak. (navigation)
Down window (windows)
Weather how ah? (content search)
Now Proton = Merc. Walauweh.
X70: okay. playing ‘Akon – Lonely’ on your radio unit.
the ‘Malaysian English’ voice will say “turn left la”. if you still miss the turn, the ‘Malaysian English’ voice will scold you the Malaysian way “Woi bodoh ka, why you no turn left?”
Alamak LOL
Why buy volvo if boyue is good?
thanks Najib’s idea saving ProTun.
Later switch to Chinese mode, the car AI only can understand Mainland Chinese but not MY Chinese. Lolz!
Hi proton, today got suck chair ah?
My back pain leh, can massage? ( on a saga)
Why so slow one, can download turbo?
U got navigation, u go petrol station there to fuel up, I put smiles card and credit card in glove box