Button-pressing will be consigned to history
Drivers desperate to text might soon be able to legally and safely feed their SMS addiction while on the move after Ford revealed that it is working on a voice-to-text system.
Ford's system will be a development of its popular Sync voice-controlled information and entertainment system (an option box that's now being ticked by more than 70 per cent of the Ford's US customers).
"A voice-recognition approach is better than bringing in a piece of paper and unfolding a map or looking down at a mobile device," says Jim Buczkowski, Ford's director of electronics. "We're looking at various combinations of accomplishing that task because it's being asked for by consumers."
Ford currently offers a message system on some phones that reads out texts to drivers who push a button on the dash. The new system would move the game on to the next stage, converting a driver's spoken words to text and sending them to a mobile device.
We presume that the new system, like Sync, is being developed in conjunction with Microsoft. Mind you, considering the recently reborn Knight Rider series uses a Ford Mustang, perhaps Knight Industries has a hand in the project, too...
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