SoundHound Inc., the leading innovator in voice-enabled AI and conversational intelligence technologies, announced a partnership with the Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s leading automobile manufacturing group, to embed the SoundHound music application into select Hyundai Motor Group vehicles worldwide.
This partnership began in North America in 2014, with the world’s first in-car implementation of SoundHound, the most advanced music search, discovery, and connected streaming experience. The new global expansion will begin in Korea with the new 2018 Hyundai Veloster model, with additional models to follow.
SoundHound Inc. has developed a unique feature set designed specifically for car integration. This integration enables drivers of Hyundai vehicles to identify songs and access SoundHound features directly through the vehicle’s dashboard, without needing their mobile phone. This comes after significant advancements from SoundHound Inc. on its music database, including the integration of KT’s Music Genie catalog to reach a wider audience in Korea, and enabling faster, more accurate music recognition.
This partnership highlights SoundHound Inc.’s position as the leading independent platform that enables music streaming services to reach their fans. It also represents a continuing strategic initiative between SoundHound Inc. and KT to bring new technology to Korea. In 2017, SoundHound Inc. raised a Series D round of funding to support further expansion of its voice-enabled AI platform, Houndify, with both Hyundai and KT participating as strategic investors.
SoundHound Inc. introduced the Houndify platform in 2015, with the mission of bringing voice-enabled AI to everyone. The platform powers more than 50,000 partners and reaches over 300 million end-users globally. Houndify partners include many automotive companies, as well as industry leaders such as Samsung, NVIDIA, Uber, and Yelp, with thousands of distinct products being Houndified. Houndify is the only AI platform that is fully independent and agnostic, which means companies can integrate it into their full line of products and services, including phones, connected cars, smart home products, and more, while retaining their own brands and users.
“We know that music is part of the driving experience and SoundHound is a beloved music search, discovery and play service,” said James Hom, Vice President of Products and co-founder of SoundHound Inc. “It was a natural fit for us to work with Hyundai Motor Group and KT to fully integrate the enhanced SoundHound experience into the automobile and make it as easy as possible for drivers to identify and capture those discoveries. We see even greater potential in the future and plan to continue to make the driving experience more intelligent and productive.”
“Hyundai is very focused on bringing innovation to the driving experience,” said Paul Choo, Director of Vehicle IT Development Center at Hyundai Motor Group. “We believe that consumers will become increasingly savvy with the intelligent technologies available to them in the driving experience. We are on the forefront of bringing these innovations to our customers with our deep partnership with SoundHound Inc., the leader in sound recognition and voice technologies.”