recall the onetime telly show " Knight Rider ? " It was about a guy with a qualify Pontiac Trans Am namedKITTthat had a build - in computer brain and the ability to carry on intelligent conversation with its gadget driver . Obviously a lot of budding young automotive engineers ascertain the show , because today most cars do indeed have computer brains and many can talk to their driver . avowedly , the conversational abilities of most cars is limited to a band of voice commands ( sometimes as many as 10,000 of them ) , and sack responses that can be used to actuate and control a few of the car ’s feature film – especially theGPS , the entertainment system , the environmental controls andmobile phone . But can it be long before your Prius wants to have a chat with you about your livestock portfolio or the odds on the Red Sox winning the next World Series ?
A fortune of auto manufacturers now append amply integrated in - fomite communications and entertainment systems in their cars and trucks , likeFord ’s SYNCand Fiat ’s Blue&Me , that not only provide a common interface to most of the car ’s electronic functions but alsovoice identification softwarethat can be used to check those systems through an elaborated set of commands . The numeral of command that these system can realize is grow by the sidereal day and it would likely take a lowly manual of arms to heel them all . ( In fact , such a manual may have come with your car . ) On the next several pages we ’ll front at some of the most useful of these commands to see what they can really do now , and what they may be capable of in the near future .
5: “Call my wife at work.”
In most states , getting caught driving with acell phonepressed to your capitulum will earn you a incite violation slate – and it is n’t likely to be cheap . That ’s why it ’s common now for cars to offer hands - freeBluetoothintegration , so you could talk on the phone while still observe both hands on the wheel . But you still need to dial the number you ’re phone or at least pick a name from your phone ’s speech book , right ? Not necessarily . More and more cars are offer up voice bidding for cell phones , so rather of punching in a number you’re able to simply say , " Call Bill Williams . " And if you have more than one number in the system for Bill , your car can then ask you ( shades ofKITT , the speak Trans Am ! ) " Do you wish to call Bill Williams at work or at home ? " Now , if you ’ve previse this trouble , you could get around it by saying " Call Bill Williams at home , " so your railcar ’s literal - disposed electronic brain wo n’t get confused . of course , you have to preprogram your telephone ( or the car ’s address book ) in progression with Bill ’s various bit . But you ’ve probably done that already , right ?
4: “Increase temperature.”
Getting a bit chilly in the cockpit ? Ca n’t remember which button makes the bullet suck warm air ? Do n’t rear end the car in front of you while try on to read those cryptic symbols on the dashboard . Just demand the car to do it for you and rent it occupy about the detail . Many cars will respond to a kitchen range of equivalent word for this command , such as " temp up " or " warm " ( or , in the diametrical situation , " temporary down " or " cooler " ) . Sure , it ’s a bit like talking to a apt 5 - year old ; but then again , 5 - class former kids can be very useful for doing funny jobs around the cable car . And your car’svoice - acknowledgment systemwill never ask you , " Are we there yet ? "
3: “Home, James!”
Okay , we have n’t yet make the stop where your car can act as your personal chauffeur – and we probably wo n’t until self - driving auto ( which do already live , by the way ) are well beyond the observational stage . ButGPS devicesin cars have become quite common , and if you ’re negotiating your way through a complicated tripper across a large city , you may necessitate to interact with your GPS fair often to fancy out how to get from point A to aim B. So a lot of machine ( and the GPS organization built into them ) let you tell them verbally where you want to go . Of course , let the cat out of the bag with your GPS about how to get to the local ironware memory can be more than a little complicated , and in some casing , is about as much fun as trying to negociate thevoicemail - Scheol of a large company ’s customer support system – but it ’s still a muckle safer than seek to type street addresses and steer at the same meter .
2: “Play ‘Misty’ for me.”
This is n’t a feature of your car so much as it ’s a characteristic of late modeliPodsandiPhone ’s from Apple , Inc. , but if you haveBluetoothintegration or an iPod bob , you’re able to tell the iPod / iPhone what album or artist to toy . It has n’t reached the point in time yet where you could ask for an case-by-case Sung dynasty – for that you should use your Bluetooth integration to call in a petition to a DJ at a localradio station . But if you encounter that driving goes better with The Rolling Stones or Lady Gaga , you do n’t have to trouble yourself dialing through a menu of playlists ( or , worsened yet , digging through a dispiritedly old - fashioned stack of compact disk ) .
1: “Take a letter, please.”
Will there ever come a solar day when you could have your elevator car take dictation while you get ? Sure , and that sidereal day will come very soon if car manufacturer like BMW have their way . The German railcar troupe has a prototype system that allows a driver to order and transmit e - mail messages without ever concern a computer or asmartphone . Some railroad car already use yourBluetooth connectionto read your e - ring mail out loud , but now you ’ll be able to compose a response verbally with a accomplished hardening of editing functions , just as you would on your estimator ’s keyboard orBlackberry ’s computer keyboard . Ford already plans to do something similar with itsSYNC systemand GM has an Android app in the work for e - mail service bidding via itsbuilt - in OnStar systems . Can a " Beam me up , Scotty " command be far behind ?
