I know what you want
Partnership between Panasonic and Watson nods to new personalized experiences
“Can I adjust the mirrors for you, sir?”
That’s not exactly what you might expect from your current roadster, but a glimpse into the future of transportation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year shows what a more personalized driving experience might look like.
The technologically-advanced Chrysler Portal includes a cognitive infotainment platform powered by IBM Watson. The enhanced driving experience allows for personalization around the driver and the ability to carry out functions through simple conversations while you keep your eyes on the road. For instance, the car can personalize the driving experience for whoever is at the wheel and can even place orders, say at a fast food drive-in before you pull up.
Using cognitive tools like Personality Insights, the car offers more personalized recommendations the more it converses, like an affable hotel concierge who knows the just the right thing to say to each guest.
As the Fiat Chrysler Authority points out,
“The Portal’s infotainment system also has the ability to recognize various user’s faces and adjust the vehicles various settings based on the operator. At CES, Panasonic demonstrated further features, such as its ability to conduct quick e-Commerce transactions from the Portal. This features could find particular use when placing food orders, Panasonic says.”
Talking of hotel concierges, the partnership with Panasonic extends to the hotel room, where a smart digital mirror can offer similar personalized conversation to guests. In this case, the mirror can provide information on hotel services, entertainment and shopping opportunities, transportation and weather.
Speaking on Techseen, Yasuji Enokido, President, AVC Networks Company, Panasonic Corporation says,
“Working with IBM, we plan to further implement our connected solutions vision while making use of Watson intelligence to provide end-users with more natural cognitive functionality as well as richer feature sets.”
You can see the mirror in action in this demo:
One key advantage of these kinds of interfaces is that they afford developers a deeper level of understanding of what the user wants. Unlike a web experience where if you don’t find what you want, you will likely just move on (with the developer never knowing why your session ended), with personalized Watson Conversation systems it’s possible to log the common questions that aren’t initially addressed and train the system to be able to answer these over time.
