Jaguar Land Rover has announced the launch of justDrive,a new app that integrates multiple smartphone apps into a single, voice-activated in-car experience. Developed by Silicon Valley-based CloudCar, Jaguar Land Rover has optimized justDrive for its InControl platform for both Apple iOS8 and Android phones. ‘justDrive for Jaguar Land Rover’ integrates apps and services, such as Spotify, Twitter, Yelp and others, to give Jaguar and Land Rover drivers an unprecedented level of connectivity for navigation, media, social interaction, voice search and information services while minimising driver distraction.
justDrive will join 17 other apps including Stitcher, IheartRadio and Parkopedia currently in Jaguar Land Rover’s InControl Apps in-car infotainment system. Free to download, justDrive will be available from early 2015 and offers drivers continuously updated apps and services throughout their vehicle ownership.
Speaking about the new app, Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover, said, “Our InControl system already allows the driver to plug their smartphone into the vehicle and then safely control their apps through the vehicle’s touchscreen. The apps are enhanced for in-car use, so it is exactly like having your smartphone installed in your dashboard. Today, we areadvancing our InControl system a stage further and to the forefront of the industry with the launch of justDrive. This moves the driver from the task-oriented, app-specific touch-based use of individual apps, to full control of all chosen app content through plain natural speech or touch interface.”
justDrive uses one of the most advanced plain speech recognition packages in the world, so customers can communicate naturally with their car, rather than using simple syntax commands. justDrive’s intelligence takes care of finding the best results for a user’s request from among the many applications and services that it has aggregated. So instead of the driver having to specify which navigation provider to search for when looking for the closest gas station, they can simply ask justDrive for directions.
The driver can dictate and then send a tweet or SMS by simply saying: ‘Tell George I’ll be late’, with justDrive reading the content of the message back to you before it is sent. You can also ask justDrive to play a particular song, just by asking for it.
As Po said in Kung Fu Panda 2 – That is severely cool! Stay tuned to Motoroids for more updates from the motoring industry.