Cerence Launches Analytics Platform to Improve Car AI
Automobile artificial intelligence developer Cerence debuted a new analytics platform to measure the experience of people using its interfaces. The Cerence UX Services is designed to help car manufacturers test and improve the way vehicle AI functions for people on the road.
UX Acceleration
Cerence UX Services aims to examine a number of facets of user experience, including quantitative and qualitative markers. The usual standard is to look at the accuracy of voice assistants, touch-screens and other interfaces. The new platform also looks at fuzzier metrics like user satisfaction and how well the interface actually does in accomplishing user requests. The results can then be collated and analyzed to make the next iteration of the technology better and more satisfying for customers.
“[W]e have an unparalleled understanding of upcoming [human-machine interface] trends and how we can leverage them to build exceptional in-car experiences,” said Cerence Chief Technology Officer Prateek Kathpal in a statement. “We know that driver adoption is driven by incredible design, even more so than technology, and that user experience is key when it comes to driving end-user affinity for and long-term usage of in-car technologies. Cerence UX Services will provide valuable insight to automakers as they look to differentiate from competitors and build loyalty and deeper connections with their drivers.”
There’s a reason for carmakers to want to invest in improving their voice assistant AI. As Voicebot’s recent In-Car Voice Assistant Consumer Adoption Report 2020 found, total in-car voice assistant users in the U.S. rose 13.7% in 15 months to nearly 130 million. That’s much higher than the number of people using voice assistants through smart speakers and embedded voice assistants are more frequently used than ones accessed through Bluetooth. According to Cerence, close to 300 million cars on the road use its platform in some form.
Cerence Intelligence
The UX Services is Cerence’s latest offering, one of a spate of tools put out by the company just in the last several months. In February, Cerene came out with the Cognitive Arbitrator, which lets cars offer multiple voice assistants simultaneously while automatically directing requests to the one best-suited to the task. The company also came out with a way for people to customize car voice assistants called My Car, My Voice at the end of last year, which it demonstrated alongside gesture-based controls and automatic emergency vehicle detection at CES this year.
Cerence is far from alone in pursuing automotive voice tech. Car companies and voice assistant developers are both pushing out new products and features. Despite Cerence’s leading place in the field, it still works with other big tech companies, including a recent major partnership with LG. The concrete measurements in the UX Services system, however, are likely to appeal to car manufacturers who want to make sure that each version of their vehicle’s AI interface is better than the one before.
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