Announcing the Launch of api.ai for Cars: The First Customizable Voice Interface for Connected Cars

PALO ALTO, Calif.-- (July 14, 2015) -- Today api.ai , the leader in conversational interfaces for connected devices, launches the first open, customizable voice user interface platform for the connected car. Gartner predicts that by 2020, there will be a quarter billion Internet-connected cars on the road in America. However, with a fragmented ecosystem split across auto manufacturers, the dust has yet to settle on what the best, in-car user experience will be. With the new, open, and flexible platform from api.ai, auto manufacturers will be able to offer a customizable and personalized Siri -like voice interface specialized for Internet-connected cars for the first time.

Unlike other products on the market, api.ai for autos is a voice interface that is platform agnostic and can work with any headunit operating system. Today, carmakers are either trying to build voice solutions in-house or relying to standard systems like those integrated with Android or iOS devices. This adds either requires substantial development costs, time to market delays and customer experience inconsistencies or lack of flexibility and customization opportunities, respectively. Licensing third party solutions requires giving up ownership of the data created by the system and limits the degree to which the voice interface can be customized.   api.ai enables carmakers to quickly integrate customizable conversational functionality on par with advanced modern systems available to order on the market, all while retaining ownership of data, and leveraging technologies that are tested and proven by over seven thousand developers and millions of users.  

“ IHS recently released a report showing that in just four years, a majority of all new cars will be voice enabled. People using voice interfaces in cars expect experiences comparable to the best they’ve had, and rightly so,” declared Ilya Gelfenbeyn, CEO and co-founder of api.ai . “api.ai is a natural fit to expand into autos because before us, there was no open solution to the glaring problem of creating your own voice interface that can compete with the best out there.”  

Automakers can use api.ai to integrate, voice-enable and support functionalities in the following spaces: apps, authentication, booking, calculator, finance, maps, navigation, points of interest, small talk, social networks, smart home, time & dates, weather, web browsing, and wisdom (reference information).   To learn more about api.ai visit this link. 

About api.ai:
  api.ai is the industry leader in intelligent, customizable voice interfaces for connected devices. Powered by a machine learning engine with more than 2 billion processed voice commands, api.ai offers the most complete, and refined natural language understanding platform available to developers. Advised by some of the foremost minds in smart machines and technology, such as Stephen Wolfram, Founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, Google Vice President Mike Cassidy, and Yahoo Head of Growth, Dariusz Paczuski, api.ai is used by many of the world’s leading companies and startups to build voice-enabled products. Learn more at api.ai .

Contact Information

William Clarke

Account Executive

VSC on behalf of Api.ai

will@vscconsulting.com