Wednesday, October 21, 1998
Latest Jaguar willing to lend you an ear
BY DAVID STEINHART
Auto Industry Reporter The Financial Post
Luxury car lovers will soon be offered the ultimate treat -- a vehicle that responds to voice
commands.
The S-type Jaguar, which will retail for US$48,000, is set to go on sale in March.
Dealers are pitching the car as cheaper than its competitors -- and responsive to your wishes.
"This car will literally tune to the exact radio station that you want as soon as you tell it to," said
Denise Bither of Michigan-based Visteon Automotive Systems, which developed the voice
activation system.
The voice module lets drivers "command" in-car audio, temperature and telephone systems. They
can switch to voice activation at any time by pressing a button on the steering wheel.
The system is instantaneous and can recognize a range of voices, as well as adapting to different
accents and dialects. It also understands continuous and natural patterns of speech, in whichever
language it is programmed. That means users do not have to remember fixed instructions, or
artificially pause between words.
Some auto analysts broke into laughter upon hearing about it.
David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities in Phoenix, Ariz., said he doesn't think the car will
have much of a life.
"There are too many things that can go wrong," he said. "Call me a healthy skeptic on this one."
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