As soon as 2019, Hyundai will offer drivers an in-car personal assistant powered by Soundhound's artificial intelligence (AI) system. The Korean brand announced Thursday its "intelligent personal agent" will make its debut at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show along with a conceptual cockpit.
The system will cover a wide range of vehicle functions, but it will also support smart home connectivity as well. For example, Hyundai said the AI agent will understand multiple commands at once. So, a driver could say "Tell me what the weather will be like tomorrow and turn off the lights in the living room.” That's above what most systems can do today; many offer home-to-car commands, but none have offered car-to-home connectivity.
The brand also said the AI agent is proactive and will remind the driver of an upcoming appointment or suggest routes based on available traffic information. Once the driver requests information or calls out a command, the system communicates with the SoundHound AI server to search for the requested information or to complete a task.
Standard uses will also include the ability to make phone calls, send text messages, search for music and destinations, and even manage schedules. Hyundai didn't detail how the whole process works, but we'll likely learn more at CES next month. However, it did add that numerous in-car functions will be operable as well. Things like the climate control, sunroof, door locks, and more all respond to Hyundai's personal agent.
After the technology debuts at CES, Hyundai will show a simplified version of the system in its next-generation fuel-cell vehicles, which the brand has scheduled for prototype test drives in South Korea.