- Lucid’s new voice assistant incorporates natural-language interactivity
- SoundHound tech doesn’t rely fully on a mobile connection
- Already out there in Air, coming quickly to Gravity
Lucid needs you to have a dialog along with your Air or Gravity electrical automobile, and it goes far past the requisite wake-up of “Hey Lucid.”
Earlier this month I sat within the passenger seat of an Air, whereas the motive force requested: “My buddy steered that I am going take a look at the NFL stadium whereas I am in Vegas; what’s it known as?”
An artificial voice replied inside a fraction of a second: “The NFL Stadium in Vegas is named the Allegiant stadium. It is tremendous cool.”
“Navigate there,” mentioned my seatmate.
The voice finally confirmed, “Navigating to Allegiant stadium. Observe the street.”
Lucid Assistant powered by SoundHound (demo)
The one within the driver’s seat strolling me by means of Lucid Assistant voice interactivity was Kyle Halstvedt, the technical program supervisor at SoundHound who helped coordinate this utterly new voice assistant for Lucid EVs.
With SoundHound’s voice-and-AI-focused crew based mostly in Santa Clara, California, close to Lucid’s Newark headquarters, the businesses labored carefully on the venture. Halstvedt aimed to indicate me that each voice question now has quite a lot of flexibility, and the voice performance is now totally in tune with Lucid’s wants—like the necessity to discover the quickest chargers alongside the way in which, plan the EV’s route, and precondition its battery to organize for them.
2022 Lucid Air fast-charging in Garberville, CA
Right here it’s particularly essential that this performance navigates the nuance—as a result of in a Lucid it may be the distinction between one of many quickest EV charging experiences on this planet versus one which’s simply par.
“That was a enjoyable side of this venture, that they need to drive issues by means of their very own navigation system,” Halstvedt mentioned. “We’re not simply utilizing a separate information supplier; we’re deeply built-in with their navigation system, and that needed to occur.”
Halstvedt famous that’s one thing SoundHound has expertise doing earlier than, and it’s one thing that Lucid had a selected requirement surrounding the venture and the mixing. “They appreciated the pliability of our technical crew to construct the expertise they’re searching for, one thing that takes a little bit of creativity on the technical aspect,” he mentioned.
Lucid UX 2.4 replace
Far more flexibility, higher than Alexa
The Lucid Assistant was rolled out beginning in September, changing Alexa as a part of Lucid’s UX 2.4 software program replace. In keeping with Lucid, all Air fashions in North America and the Center East now have entry to it. Early Gravity fashions don’t but have the Lucid Assistant, however they may quickly, the automaker instructed Inexperienced Automobile Experiences.
The brand new assistant, already configurable in six languages, will now higher handle navigation and audio, local weather management options, or heated seats—all fundamentals that homeowners beforehand discovered difficult. However that’s simply the beginning.
Lucid made a strategic selection about the place it needed its core competency, and voice is on the middle of it, Lucid Motors head of person expertise Dave Flint defined to Inexperienced Automobile Experiences in November, when that system was nonetheless rolling out in Air. “It’s not simply, I’m ordering the automotive round; it’s like, how does the automotive start to speak with me by means of voice?”
“That basically wasn’t potential with our outdated system,” Flint bluntly summed.
Alexa wasn’t working for Lucid, and Lucid didn’t mince phrases about it—though there have been possible loads of drivers’ phrases minced. The California EV maker introduced again in 2020 that it might make use of an superior model of Amazon Alexa to entry an intensive array of car features starting from small changes to discovering charging stations, in addition to faucet into good dwelling controls. However what homeowners had been discovering out in the actual world was that such instructions inside the automobile depended an excessive amount of on a robust information connection; account permissions and different components may get in the way in which; and finally Lucid didn’t have quite a lot of management over how easily all of it labored in the actual world.
2025 Lucid Air Pure
Context is all the things to new Lucid Assistant
“What we have to do a superb job, on the pure language instructions, is surrounding context—whether or not that’s the historical past of the dialog, information in regards to the pure world, or the place, the place the person is,” Halstvedt mentioned.
Customers anticipate to have the ability to have an prolonged dialog a couple of location or collection of places, filtering it iteratively, after which they need to have the ability to act on it based mostly on the cumulative outcomes, he mentioned. However few new automobiles can really ship that even in excellent connectivity.
SoundHound hasn’t ignored the uncanny smoothness of AI-based queries and chatbots, but it surely understands that far more is required inside the automobile—and it must pair a few of these benefits with conventional in-vehicle voice processing.
“If you happen to simply plugged OpenAI’s APIs into your automobile it might do a very good job of speaking but it surely wouldn’t do a very good job of performing,” Halstvedt mentioned. “We need to carry collectively these strengths.”
To try this, the voice assistant runs on the truth that it received’t at all times have a mobile connection out on the street. In what SoundHound calls a native-hybrid mannequin, it streams audio to servers or to a neighborhood embedded engine, balancing that in no matter method is sensible.
“Alongside the voice we’re sending, we’re additionally sending a set of knowledge which we name request information, that represents the entire completely different attributes, like location, time zone, and extra,” Halstvedt mentioned. “That’s a key side of answering these questions.”
2025 Lucid Air Grand Touring
2025 Lucid Air Pure
2025 Lucid Air Pure
Fewer “AI hallucinations,” connectivity elective
The method additionally lowers the probabilities of so-called “AI hallucinations,” in response to SoundHound—startling or tangential responses that seemingly don’t have anything to do with what was requested.
Whereas it may well seamlessly help these sophisticated pure dialog queries, it may well, as Halstvedt put it, “Work decently effectively and not using a connection,” and supply some extent of the identical expertise.
For instance of one thing that should seize the nuance however doesn’t require a connection, he mentioned, “It’s slightly sizzling in right here.”
“Reducing temperature by two levels Fahrenheit,” the voice replied.
“If we now have cloud connectivity we are able to improve these outcomes with higher outcomes from the cloud and actually combine in varied voice generative AI options with out having to be actually pricey from a computing standpoint,” Halstvedt added.
However in Lucid’s new method, it’s additionally drawing from round 20 years of SoundHound’s work in understanding natural-language instructions with out entry to the large-language mannequin constructed into generative AI.
Lucid Air Touring steering wheel controls
Lucid’s voice assistant is aware of the proprietor’s handbook
Versus the earlier voice instructions, SoundHound brings in new options, together with what it calls automobile intelligence—that means “related and official details about the entire options the automobile helps, like the place issues are and what the buttons do,” it defined in a latest press launch on the function set.
SoundHound has labored with different automakers, but it surely factors to Lucid’s automobile intelligence questions as the place this integration covers new floor in pure language and AI. The entire proprietor’s handbook is obtainable by way of voice, and the system can sift by means of it based mostly in your questions—even when you possibly can solely describe icons, symbols, or warning lights.
“We utilized some laptop imaginative and prescient methods to permit symbols to be described from the automobile handbook… to make information in regards to the automotive much more accessible on the occasions a person may must entry it,” Halstvedt mentioned.
2025 Lucid Gravity Grand Touring
Voice controls within the 2025 Lucid Gravity
The hybrid mannequin has additionally made the voice system simple for Lucid to adapt and customise because the Air and Gravity evolve and differ amongst trim ranges. The groups overseeing performance can change the way in which one thing works by way of the cloud nearly immediately, with the native/native backup modified quickly after by way of an replace.
“We’re investing closely in voice; it’s going to be a strategically essential UX for us, with quite a lot of implications round what it means for natural-language interplay and natural-language engagement from the automotive,” Flint mentioned.
2025 Lucid Gravity Grand Touring
2025 Lucid Gravity Grand Touring
2025 Lucid Gravity Grand Touring
Certainly, in its 2025 Lucid Gravity SUV, which has a revamped interface, the automaker is providing a digital detox mode that goes with minimalist shows, and there’s a set of mood-and-ambience modes known as Vibes. As Flint hinted, be ready for voice controls to proceed to take middle stage there and past.
And amongst all of right now’s AI hallucinations, observing that digital detox in voice type too may assist drivers merely keep centered on what issues.
