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Honda, working closely with IBM for their model year 2009 introduction, will be releasing the next step in the evolution of speech user interfaces in vehicles. The new Honda vehicles will include the leading edge Free Form Command (FFC) technology developed by IBM as part of its IBM Embedded ViaVoice (EVV) product line. At its core, Free Form Commands improve the overall end-user experience by creating a system that is easier to use out of the box by increasing the overall usability of the system. Free Form Commands employ an innovative approach which allows Statistical Language Model technology to be deployed within the constraints of an embedded computing environment. This technology allows users to speak commands that are not part of a predefined fixed set of phrases, as is required in today’s vehicles, but instead speak command phrases that match the application functional area they are targeting.

Cars are undergoing major design changes, and typical usage scenarios are already showing significant departures from the main goal. What used to be mostly a transportation means is quickly becoming a mobile micro-world that replicates features, functions and services traditionally available in homes and offices. This paper will identify industry trends in the Driver-Machine-Interface area, and will try to anticipate how quickly and to what extent cars will morph into smart assistants to make the driving experience richer and even more enjoyable than it is today.