Talking To Your Car Would Soon Be A Reality With Skoda Implementing Alexa Voice Assist

In-car connectivity and technology has been improving steadily over the years and has lately touched new heights. Skoda and it's sister concern Seat has now announced the integration of a voice assist

By Stephen

Published: Thursday, September 7, 2017, 2:52 [IST]

In-car connectivity and technology has been improving steadily over the years and has lately touched new heights. Skoda along with it's sister concern Seat has now announced the integration of an in-car voice assist system.

The system in question is Amazon's Alexa advanced voice control system. While Alexa can be used to retrieve information, news and control music and smart home functionalities at home, the software to be integrated by Skoda will be optimized to perform similar functions but in a driving situation.

Skoda Cars To Feature Alexa Voice Assist System

At the revealing of the latest Seat Cupra R, the Spanish company made the announcement about implementing the said software in some of its cars by the end of the year, and on all its models within a year's time. Seat, being under the Volkswagen group of companies, is Skoda's sister concern and the two companies have a lot in common.

Skoda has not announced a timeline for the software's integration in its cars, but the Czech company is looking at bringing the technology into their cars, as the demand for in-car connectivity has increased over the years.

The idea behind these integrated softwares is to allow greater levels of individualisation - something along the likes of Siri (Apple's virtual assistant). This level of voice control will allow the users to talk normally to the system, and it would be able to interpret it unlike the systems currently in use.

Once Skoda implements Alexa in its European market cars, it could look at bringing the system to India as well.

DriveSpark Thinks!

Voice recognition and control in cars has been around for ages, but is still currently at a stage wherein, it is able to recognise only specific phrases and commands instead of plain speech. With auto giants like Tesla and now Seat and Skoda working on integrating natural speech-like voice control systems, the end users will be able to benefit from it in the near future. People can now finally start talking to their cars.