In-Car Speech Recognition

This week's class topic relates to navigation/GPS. I am interested in how advanced technology can help drivers easily and safely navigate on the road during driving. In particular, I dived into some research about speech-based technology used in car. One study compares the difference between in-vehicle information systems and two popular smartphone-based system, Apple CarPlay and Google's Android Auto, in terms of their visual and cognitive demand placed on drivers. The result shows that the vehicle's built-in infotainment system is more demanding than Apple CarPlay and Google's Android Auto for drivers.

According to the study, Siri in apple smartphone device helps drivers to play music, text message and call through voice command system. Drivers can easily activate Siri by saying "Hey Siri," or some brands of car, such as Honda Ridgeline, allow drivers to activate Siri by pressing and holding the voice recognition button on the steering wheel. The latter method may be less distracting compared to verbal communication as a result of the press button's higher precision and efficiency. After the activation, drivers can then tell Siri what music they want to play, who they want to text and who they want to call. This approach seems effortless to achieve drivers' different goals. However, It is widely known that Siri does not work properly in many situations. Although Siri still has many drawbacks which cannot always accurately interprets people's voice message, this voice shortcut is still very helpful for drivers to not take their eyes off the road when completing a task besides driving. Overall, Siri is definitely a smart invention to discourage distracted driving. Even though the research demonstrates that Apple CarPlay and Google's Android Auto require less effort from drivers compared to the vehicle's built-in screen, the result does not necessarily suggest it is perfectly safe to use these two app systems during driving. While the invention of these two systems intends to facilitate drivers implement other tasks besides driving, drivers still need to pay most attention to the road in front of them when playing around with these apps. As new versions of CarPlay and Android Auto keep come out, driving is getting safer and safer as we all hope.