Voice Gaining Ground in Automotive as Primary User Interface, Says SA

Automakers have largely aligned on touch screen and voice as the primary modalities for infotainment human machine interfaces (HMI), said Strategy Analytics Tuesday. Touch- and voice-centric HMIs have achieved a majority market penetration in all major markets, led by China where voice is the primary modality in many verticals, it said. The development of voice as the primary interaction modality has wide-ranging implications for interface designers, software developers and product planners, said analyst Derek Viita. In-car touch screen and voice control performance have long trailed their counterparts outside the car, due to poor user experiences and long production cycles, Viita said. Consumers now look to their trusted mobile or home-based voice assistant for all voice tasks, including those in the vehicle, he said. Analyst Chris Schreiner expects “tepid” satisfaction until the pace of automotive hardware improvements speeds up, along with “wholesale improvements in voice UI design.” Voice’s strength in the car is context-based, said Schreiner: A useable and useful voice UX in the car must take into account accurate location-, traffic- and weather information and user preferences, he said.