Authors:
Ayush Shah
1
and
Anastacia Gusikhin
2
Affiliations:
1
Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, Dearborn, MI, U.S.A.
;
2
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A.
Keyword(s):
Personal Voice Assistant, Connected Vehicles, Ambient Intelligence, Amazon Alexa, Voice Skills, SmartDeviceLink.
Abstract:
Over the past few years, the popularity of personal voice assistants has grown, particularly for use in the vehicle environment where voice is a preferred mode of interface to minimize driving distractions. Amazon Alexa, one of the most popular voice assistants, has been integrated in many vehicle brands. While existing Alexa car applications provide vehicle occupants with access to a multitude of voice skills in infotainment and smart home control, these applications lack the capability to manage the vehicle’s ambient environment. This paper discusses an efficient and effective integration of Amazon Alexa with vehicle climate control, potentially augmented with brought-in devices, using SmartDeviceLink API. The paper overviews the architecture, Alexa skill development, and examples of dialogue. We also present the results of a customer evaluation of the presented system and directions for future research and development toward Ambient Intelligence.