Skip to main content

AI-powered Dragon Drive will turn your car into a roving genius

Nuance Dragon Drive
You might not be able to get into the carpool lane with the new Dragon Drive automotive platform from Nuance Communications, but it’ll certainly feel as though you have a very, very intelligent passenger in the front seat with you. At CES 2018, Nuance announced its new AI-powered Dragon Drive features that promise to transform the driving experience.

By combining conversational artificial intelligence with a number of nonverbal cues, Dragon Drive helps you talk to your car as though you were talking to a person. For example, the AI platform now boasts gaze detection, which allows drivers to get information about and interact with objects and places outside of the car simply by looking at them and asking Dragon Drive for details. If you drive past a restaurant, you can simply focus your gaze at said establishment and say, “Call that restaurant,” or “How is that restaurant rated?” Dragon Drive provides a “meaningful, human-like response.”

Moreover, the platform enables better communication with a whole host of virtual assistants, including smart home devices and other popular AI platforms. In this way, Dragon Drive claims, drivers will be able to manage a host of tasks all from their cars, whether it’s setting their home heating system or transferring money between bank accounts.

Dragon Drive’s AI integration does not only apply to external factors, but to components within the car as well. For instance, if you ask the AI platform to find parking, Dragon Drive will take into consideration whether or not your windshield wipers are on to determine whether it ought to direct you to a covered parking area to avoid the rain. And if you tell Dragon Drive you’re cold, the system will automatically adjust the car’s climate (but only in your area, keeping other passengers comfortable).

“The car is quickly rising to become the leading AI platform, especially with the future of connected and autonomous vehicles upon us,” said Arnd Weil, senior vice president, automotive, Nuance Mobile. “Utilizing a combination of conversational AI with in-car sensors and data, we’re able to create greater awareness, understanding, and ultimately intelligence for the automotive assistant, creating a truly holistic and seamless user experience for drivers.”

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Mayflower Autonomous Ship is headed to sea to test its self-driving boat tech
mayflower ship seat tests ibm

Entering the Mind of the Mayflower

Last year, Digital Trends wrote about an ambitious project that seeks to dispatch an unmanned autonomous ship across the Atlantic Ocean on the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower. While this first-of-its-kind journey won’t take place until the this fall, IBM and marine research organization Promare announced Thursday that the “A.I. Captain” that will power the self-steering vessel is ready to go to sea for a month of testing. This trial, which will take place on a manned research vessel off the coast of Plymouth in the U.K., will test out the onboard A.I. and edge computing system to see how well it navigates.

Read more
New Apple self-driving car patent could turn Siri into your personal chauffeur
Apple Self Driving

Apple wants to patent a new technology that would allow you to use voice commands to tell your self-driving car where you want to go, with the car doing the navigation, driving, and parking for you. The end result would be a Siri-like system for controlling your self-driving car.

The patent application, titled “Guidance of Autonomous Vehicles in Destination Vicinities Using Intent Signals,” was initially filed on August 2 of last year, and made public on Thursday, January 23. The technology described in the patent is meant to direct self-driving vehicles to a destination by using voice commands, gestures, or touchscreens. 

Read more
The Kia EV3 could be the cheap electric SUV we’ve been waiting for
White Kia EV3

The Kia EV9 was already one of the cheapest ways to get an electric SUV, but now the company is taking things to the next level. After teasing the Kia EV3 last year, the car is now official.

The EV3 is built to be a slightly smaller, cheaper version of the EV9 -- following the path of the Rivian R2, which arrived after the Rivian R1S. It's certainly not as technologically advanced as the EV9, but it still looks unmistakably like a modern Kia, and is clearly a sibling of the larger SUV. On the outside, the vehicle has the same split taillights and very similar Tiger Face front. But it is quite a bit smaller. The vehicle will be available in nine finishes -- however only "Aventurine Green" and "Terracotta" are being announced right now.

Read more