Voice activation in automobiles for the most part sucks. You push a button on the steering wheel, ask for the nearest gas station and the system asks if you want to find a Chinese restaurant. (That’s a real-world example.) Apple wants to make it all better — while also making a sly play to control search on the road — by integrating Siri into the car.
Apple announced in June that it’s officially becoming an automotive supplier. The company is working with nine car companies to make their vehicles essentially serve as a pass-through for Siri via a feature called Eyes Free, which allows drivers speak to the quirky “virtual assistant.” Chevrolet is the first to market with Eyes Free integration in the Spark and Sonic via the MyLink system. It’s the perfect platform because, except for an embedded AM/FM tuner, it is basically a pass-through head unit that gets all of its content from a connected smartphone.
We received a hands-on demo of Siri Eyes Free in a 2013 Chevy Spark with MyLink during an L.A. Auto Show preview. While Siri won’t answer all queries, it can help drivers with tasks like reading and replying to text messages, checking weather conditions and stock prices or determining the date of Thanksgiving 2013, all without taking their hands off the wheel or eyes off the road.
“We thought this would be a particularly good fit for the Spark and Sonic,” GM engineer Sara LeBlanc told Wired. “When you think of the demographic of these customers, they have the highest penetration of smartphones across our entire vehicle line-up.”
LeBlanc said that Siri Eyes Free will be available in the first quarter of 2013. “Customers that have already purchased a Chevy Spark or Sonic with MyLink can return it to their dealers to get this free upgrade,” she adds.
Just don’t expect Siri to be at your beck and call while behind the wheel, since it won’t answer questions that require displaying a webpage. “We’re limiting that because driver distraction was our number-one concern,” LeBlanche said. “When we worked with Apple we were in agreement on what Siri could and could not do.”
Like finding a gas station, since Siri works independently of the MyLink-approved BringGo navigation app. And it also can’t help you find a Chinese restaurant, unless you pull over.
Siri 'Eyes Free' Hops Aboard Chevy Spark
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Siri 'Eyes Free' Hops Aboard Chevy Spark
