Expectations for in-vehicle speech recognition systems continue to rise. As in-vehicle connectivity and infotainment systems are becoming increasingly important in the daily lives of drivers, novel HMIs are needed, not only to differentiate, but also to ensure minimal driver distraction. A new report from the In-vehicle UX (IVX) group at Strategy Analytics “Consumers’ Usage & Satisfaction with In-Car Speech Increases as Touchscreen Satisfaction Maintains Downward Trend“, surveying consumers in the US, Western Europe and China, has found that use and satisfaction of speech recognition systems has increased across all regions, an important finding due to the crucial nature of voice HMI in keeping driver eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.
Key report findings include:
- While use is increasing, satisfaction with speech recognition systems is still not back to historic levels previously seen in both the US and China.
- Consumer frustration with speech recognition systems was highest with accuracy in recognizing commands and time taken to complete tasks using voice.
- The integration of digital assistants will test infotainment designers as consumers will ultimately have a plethora of different assistants to choose from, each having slightly different areas of focus. The challenge will be to communicate to users how to access each one and which assistant is currently active.
Diane O’Neill, report author and Director, UXIP commented, “Given the increasing importance of HMI to interact with all in-vehicle systems – embedded, mirrored or otherwise – there is an expectation that the evolution of these modalities should increase consumer satisfaction over time. But this is seemingly not the case.” Continued O’Neill, “There is a need for improvement by OEMs to ensure factors such as accuracy, natural language capabilities and unique user profiling are implemented to encourage both consumer use and satisfaction of in-vehicle speech recognition systems in the future.”
Added Chris Schreiner, Director, Syndicated Research UXIP, “Any HMI that can work to provide the most compelling user experience while maintaining driver safety will drive consumer satisfaction.”