The Tata Altroz Combines a Car and a Google Assistant Action
The new Tata Altroz was revealed by the Indian carmarker last week. Co-developed by Tata and Google, the car’s Altroz Voice BoT voice assistant uses Google Assistant to essentially run and manage the car.
Voice Action Car
Plenty of vehicles use Google Assistant to manage entertainment and environment elements. What the Tata Altroz offers goes a step beyond. The Google Assistant app not only handles those aspects, it also holds the manual and other details about the car. When asked, the voice assistant can explain safety and other features, including pulling up video guides on the seven-inch screen. There’s no need to perform specific searches, it’s all built into the Voice BoT app.
The car will include both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for connecting with the app. While the Altroz is expected to go on sale in January 2020, the voice app is already available for use. Users who try it out now can get updates on when the car is set to come out and its price, as well as schedule test drives if they are interested. The idea is to get customers interested in the car ahead of time, according to the company.
“Users today are passing through the purchase journey entirely fueled by self-investigation. We know from our long partnership with Google that this journey is predominantly aided through online research, that too mostly on mobile devices,” Tata Motors passenger vehicle business unit president Mayank Pareek said in a statement. “To cater to these evolving needs, we are delighted to launch the Tata Altroz Voice BoT, one of our many initiatives that will enhance the overall buying experience of the users. We hope that this class-defining service will be appreciated and will contribute to a more convenient buying experience.”
Universal Driving Assistance
Partnerships between voice assistant developers and car companies are becoming more common. The Tata and Google relationship is notable for not just integrating voice into the vehicle but having the tech giant take part in creating the voice assistant from the ground up. These kinds of deals are only going to become more frequent. According to a recent Capgemini Research Institute report, almost three-quarters of drivers will be using an in-car voice assistant in three years, a rise of around 25% from current use estimates.
That may seem optimistic, but there’s no reason not to anticipate more people wanting a voice assistant in their car, even if only for music and navigation, the most popular use cases by far. And while Tata Motors only sells in India, multinational car companies are investing heavily in the technology, both on their own and in arrangements with tech companies. For instance, Amazon is integrating Alexa into the upcoming Volkswagen Golf model and partnering with General Motors to bring the voice assistant to several of its next generation of cars, while Volvo is making Android a part of its line of electric cars and. Ford is doing something similar independently, with the latest version of its in-house voice assistant platform. If the Tata Motors model does well, Google could look for more car companies with which to imitate it, helping bring about the predicted spread of car voice assistants.
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