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Cerence adds KT voice assistant support to Mercedes-Benz vehicles in South Korea
February 17, 2022 at 3:30 pm
Mercedes-Benz Korea is building the first car to run the Cerence voice AI platform to support KT’s GiGA Genie voice assistant. Cerence’s upgraded cloud service capabilities enable the new car to deliver the South Korean telecom giant’s voice AI using the Cerence Cognitive Arbiter.
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Cerence launched Cognitive Arbiter in early 2020 as a tool for automakers to provide multiple simultaneously available voice assistants in the car. The system routes user requests to the most relevant voice assistant based on the driver’s request. The Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) virtual assistant platform is powered by Cerence Worldwide. Korean-built cars will still use MBUX, but will incorporate KT’s GiGA Genie into the system as an additional AI. The Cognitive Arbiter will automatically enable Korean speech AI via the standard MBUX system when the driver makes a request that the GiGA Genie is best suited to meet. Drivers don’t have to choose which voice assistant to respond; the AI intuitively answers based on its understanding of the query and its ability to access the assistant.
“GiGA Genie has been the driving force behind the growing popularity of voice assistants in Korea,” said Kangrim Choi, head of KT’s AI mobile business. “We’re proud to partner with Cerence to bring GiGA Genie into a whole new environment, offering a seamless, integrated product that gives drivers easy access to the assistant’s content, services and features on the go.”
multi-voice car
Cerence created Cognitive Arbitrator to bring together resources from platforms such as Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Alexa Auto that do not include controls for in-vehicle functions. The company envisions drivers asking their car’s voice AI to answer a question or play a song, and the response from the Alexa skill would be as smooth as the built-in Siri feature. While voice AI built into cars is now more likely to be associated with well-known voice assistants, multiple-choice platforms will still appeal to some automakers. It’s similar to why Fiat Chrysler (now Stellantis) pioneered the Alexa custom assistant, a brand’s voice AI linked to the full Alexa resource.
Since the release of Cognitive Arbitrator, Cerence has made major upgrades to its platform. The company launched Cerence Drive 2.0 and its connected cloud service more than a year ago, improving the accuracy and speed of connecting voice assistants, and has quickly rolled out new features in the months since. The Cerence Look tool, which combines an online database with gaze-tracking cameras to share insights into what drivers are looking at and related tour guide features, joined the active and multimodal Cerence Co-Pilot in December, which analyzes data from car sensors and The human-entered data predicts the driver’s wishes, ideally skipping the need for wake words and simply saying yes or no to the suggestions made to the driver. The benefits of Cerence expanding its platform to include KT and GiGA Genie are obvious.
“The digital lives of consumers around the world continue to expand to encompass a variety of assistants and services. As their ecosystems become more complex, interoperability becomes key, especially in cars,” explains Cerence CEO Stefan Ortmanns. “By leveraging our Cerence Cognitive Arbitrator to make the GiGA Genie accessible through the car assistant, KT is firmly establishing its commitment to a simple, intuitive user experience. We are delighted to partner with KT and support our long-term partner Mercedes- Mercedes-Benz because they are bringing this important feature to drivers of select Mercedes-Benz models in Korea.”