- Lucid’s new voice assistant incorporates natural-language interactivity
- SoundHound tech doesn’t rely totally on a mobile connection
- Already out there in Air, coming quickly to Gravity
Lucid needs you to have a dialog together 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 driving force requested: “My good friend instructed that I’m going take a look at the NFL stadium whereas I am in Vegas; what’s it referred to 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,” stated my seatmate.
The voice ultimately confirmed, “Navigating to Allegiant stadium. Observe the street.”
Lucid Assistant powered by SoundHound (demo)
The one within the driver’s seat strolling me via Lucid Assistant voice interactivity was Kyle Halstvedt, the technical program supervisor at SoundHound who helped coordinate this fully new voice assistant for Lucid EVs.
With SoundHound’s voice-and-AI-focused workforce primarily based in Santa Clara, California, close to Lucid’s Newark headquarters, the businesses labored carefully on the mission. Halstvedt aimed to point out me that each voice question now has a number 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 best way, plan the EV’s route, and precondition its battery to arrange for them.
2022 Lucid Air fast-charging in Garberville, CA
Right here it’s particularly necessary 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 the planet versus one which’s simply par.
“That was a enjoyable side of this mission, that they need to drive issues via their very own navigation system,” Halstvedt stated. “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 mission and the combination. “They appreciated the pliability of our technical workforce to construct the expertise they’re searching for, one thing that takes a little bit of creativity on the technical aspect,” he stated.
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 accordance 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 are going to quickly, the automaker informed Inexperienced Automotive 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 wished its core competency, and voice is on the middle of it, Lucid Motors head of consumer expertise Dave Flint defined to Inexperienced Automotive Experiences in November, when that system was nonetheless rolling out in Air. “It’s not simply, I’m ordering the automobile round; it’s like, how does the automobile start to speak with me via voice?”
“That basically wasn’t doable with our previous system,” Flint bluntly summed.
Alexa wasn’t working for Lucid, and Lucid didn’t mince phrases about it—though there have been seemingly loads of drivers’ phrases minced. The California EV maker introduced again in 2020 that it could make use of an superior model of Amazon Alexa to entry an in depth array of car features starting from small changes to discovering charging stations, in addition to faucet into sensible dwelling controls. However what homeowners have been discovering out in the true world was that such instructions throughout the automobile depended an excessive amount of on a powerful information connection; account permissions and different components may get in the best way; and finally Lucid didn’t have a number of management over how easily all of it labored in the true world.
2025 Lucid Air Pure
Context is every part to new Lucid Assistant
“What we have to do a very good job, on the pure language instructions, is surrounding context—whether or not that’s the historical past of the dialog, data concerning the pure world, or the place, the place the consumer is,” Halstvedt stated.
Shoppers anticipate to have the ability to have an prolonged dialog a couple of location or sequence of areas, filtering it iteratively, after which they need to have the ability to act on it primarily based on the cumulative outcomes, he stated. However few new autos can truly ship that even in excellent connectivity.
SoundHound hasn’t ignored the uncanny smoothness of AI-based queries and chatbots, nevertheless it understands that far more is required throughout the automobile—and it must pair a few of these benefits with conventional in-vehicle voice processing.
“Should you simply plugged OpenAI’s APIs into your automobile it could do a extremely good job of speaking nevertheless it wouldn’t do a extremely good job of appearing,” Halstvedt stated. “We need to carry collectively these strengths.”
To try this, the voice assistant runs on the truth that it gained’t all the time have a mobile connection out on the street. In what SoundHound calls a native-hybrid mannequin, it streams audio to servers or to an area embedded engine, balancing that in no matter manner is sensible.
“Alongside the voice we’re sending, we’re additionally sending a set of information which we name request data, that represents all the completely different attributes, like location, time zone, and extra,” Halstvedt stated. “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 non-compulsory
The strategy additionally lowers the possibilities of so-called “AI hallucinations,” in line with SoundHound—startling or tangential responses that seemingly don’t have anything to do with what was requested.
Whereas it might seamlessly assist these sophisticated pure dialog queries, it might, as Halstvedt put it, “Work decently properly with no connection,” and supply a point of the identical expertise.
For instance of one thing that should seize the nuance however doesn’t require a connection, he stated, “It’s somewhat scorching in right here.”
“Lowering temperature by two levels Fahrenheit,” the voice replied.
“If now we have cloud connectivity we will improve these outcomes with higher outcomes from the cloud and actually combine in varied voice generative AI options with out having to be actually expensive from a computing standpoint,” Halstvedt added.
However in Lucid’s new strategy, 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 guide
Versus the earlier voice instructions, SoundHound brings in new options, together with what it calls automobile intelligence—that means “related and official details about all the 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, nevertheless it factors to Lucid’s automobile intelligence questions as the place this integration covers new floor in pure language and AI. The entire proprietor’s guide is accessible by way of voice, and the system can sift via it primarily based in your questions—even when you may solely describe icons, symbols, or warning lights.
“We utilized some laptop imaginative and prescient methods to permit symbols to be described from the automobile guide… to make data concerning the automobile much more accessible on the occasions a consumer would possibly have to entry it,” Halstvedt stated.
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 best way one thing works by way of the cloud virtually 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 necessary UX for us, with a number of implications round what it means for natural-language interplay and natural-language engagement from the automobile,” Flint stated.
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 referred to as Vibes. As Flint hinted, be ready for voice controls to proceed to take middle stage there and past.
And amongst all of immediately’s AI hallucinations, observing that digital detox in voice type too would possibly assist drivers merely keep targeted on what issues.
