smart and Cerence Collaborate to Create Next-Gen, Generative AI-Powered In-Car Experience

Cerence Inc. (NASDAQ: CRNC), AI for a world in motion, today announced its collaboration with smart, the new-premium all-electric automobile brand, on the development of AI-powered solutions for smart’s next-generation in-car experiences, first available in the Concept #5. smart has always kept a keen focus on emerging technology and remained at the forefront of exploring the best solutions for future urban mobility. In the AI era and with the support of Cerence, smart will create a new generation of future-proof, convenient and sustainable solutions for customers, ensuring an outstanding user experience and setting new industry benchmarks in Europe and other overseas markets outside Mainland China.

For its next-gen platform, smart has prioritized leveraging AI to enhance the user experience, turning to Cerence and its industry-leading expertise as its innovation partner. smart will deploy Cerence’s generative AI-powered solutions to create a more intuitive and integrated experience. Cerence Car Knowledge leverages the company’s home-grown deep learning technology coupled with state-of-the-art generative AI to enable drivers to ask questions, describe situations, or even just speak a few words to find much-needed information about their cars, making it more intuitive for smart drivers to explore car features and functions using their voice. In addition, Cerence Chat Pro enables drivers and passengers to engage the in-car assistant in fun and conversational chit-chat, leveraging a multitude of sources, including general knowledge large language models, to provide accurate and relevant responses to nearly every query imaginable.

As the basis for this experience, smart will leverage Cerence’s scalable full stack – speech recognition, natural language understanding, text-to-speech, and speech signal enhancement – taking a hybrid embedded and cloud-based approach to ensure drivers always have access to what they need, when they need it. Integrated with smart’s intelligent in-vehicle avatars, drivers can control key features and functionalities using only their voice, including phone calls and messaging, music and media, climate controls, navigation, personal settings, and vehicle controls, as well as information including weather, news, calendar, general knowledge, and more.

“The smart brand is in the midst of a transformation, with our new, AI-powered user experience as a key element in our ability to better meet growing driver needs for intuitive, connected capabilities,” said Yang Jun, the Global CTO of smart Automobile. “By leveraging Cerence’s AI-powered solutions and focusing on intelligent, voice-powered access in the cabin, we will deliver an integrated, convenient, and personalized cockpit experience and usher in a new era of intelligent driving.”

“smart is an iconic brand that has long been a pioneer in urban mobility,” said Stefan Ortmanns, CEO, Cerence. “We are proud to support smart as it enters its next phase, bringing important AI-based technologies to its innovative infotainment system and creating a new level of natural, intuitive interaction that enables a safer, more enjoyable conversational AI-powered experience for smart drivers.”

To learn more about Cerence, visit www.cerence.com, and follow the company on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Cerence Inc.Cerence (NASDAQ: CRNC) is the global industry leader in creating unique, moving experiences for the mobility world. As an innovation partner to the world’s leading automakers and mobility OEMs, it is helping advance the future of connected mobility through intuitive, AI-powered interaction between humans and their vehicles, connecting consumers’ digital lives to their daily journeys no matter where they are. Cerence’s track record is built on more than 20 years of knowledge and 500 million cars shipped with Cerence technology. Whether it’s connected cars, autonomous driving, e-vehicles, or two-wheelers, Cerence is mapping the road ahead. For more information, visit www.cerence.com.  

About smart AutomobileSince the birth of the brand in the 90s, smart has always maintained the vision of exploring the best solutions for future urban mobility. smart Automobile was officially established in 2019 with a forward-looking "China-Europe, dual home" global development strategy, and is committed to becoming a world-leading, new-premium, intelligent and all-electric auto brand.

smart has completed a comprehensive renewal of its brand, product, and business model and has entered a new era of full-speed operations, accelerating the establishment of a global product development, sales and service management system. Engineering, research, and development for the new generation all-electric vehicle portfolio is led by the smart R&D team, with the Mercedes-Benz Global design team overseeing vehicle design. smart has now launched two all-electric SUV models, the smart #1 and smart #3, with deliveries underway across multiple markets in China and Europe and continued expansion into high-potential markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. From 2022 to 2025, smart will bring an all-new model to customers each year, further enriching the new generation all-electric product portfolio.

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