Cerence Starts Developing Japanese Motorcycle Voice Assistants
Cerence has inked a deal with Japanese automotive software developer to create voice assistants and apps for two-wheel vehicles like motorcycles and electric bicylces. Micware will integrate the Cerence Ride two-wheeler mobility platform, launched at the beginning of the year to add voice commands and communication to helmets connected to a vehicle or rider’s smartphone.
Two-Wheel AI
Cerence Ride is part of the new Cerence Mobility Platforms released as part of the Cerence Drive 2.0 revamp. The new platforms look to add Cerence’s conversational AI to anything that moves, including two-wheel vehicles and elevators. Cerence Ride uses the company’s speech recognition, natural language understanding, and speech signal enhancement to provide communications, navigation, entertainment, and vehicular information and control settings by voice. The two-wheeler makers can brand the AI their own way and make it compatible with Android, iOS, or an operating system built into the vehicle depending on their needs.
Micware has been creating navigation software and other digital tools software for two-wheelers for a while and cites a rapidly rising demand for e-bikes and other two-wheel motorized vehicles as the reason for collaborating with Cerence. The deal will augment Micrware’s products with proprietary voice assistants powered by Cerence faster than would be feasible without the automotive AI giant.
“The integration of Micware’s navigation technologies and Cerence’s industry-leading voice interaction technologies will open up new possibilities for two-wheeler OEMs and their riders, and we are very excited about the collaboration,” Micware director Takuma Segawa said in a statement. “With this collaboration as a first step, we are expanding our business in the two-wheeler market.”
AI Ride
Cerence’s previous work for motorcycle AI involves developing smart glasses for motorcyclists. The company is partnered with tooz technologies to integrate its audio and visual assistant into the tooz Smart Glasses. Motorcycle voice assistants for helmets are becoming more mainstream in general. Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica is working on having a device placed into a helmet to talk to a smartphone connected to the motorcycle. Jarvish went for an all0-in-one look with a smart helmet that integrates Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant into its display. Honda, as the maker of motorcycles as well as AI, is looking at multiple controls for its motorcycles, with voice and handlebar switches operating the AI. Other motorcycles are adapting existing voice assistants. For instance, Harley-Davidson has a combination of screen and voice assistant-based control with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay controls available on different models. Both Micware and Cerence see the two-wheeler market as ripe for conversational AI as their potential rivals.
“The explosive growth of the two-wheeler market presents an exciting opportunity to leverage our experience in the automotive market for an entirely new mobility experience,” Cerence senior vice president Charles Kuaisaid. “We are excited to collaborate with Micware to deliver a wide range of intelligent voice experiences to riders around the world in partnership with Japanese two-wheeler makers.”
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