BMW's 3 and 7 Series to be the first with Nuance's Dragon Drive! Messaging aboard
It somehow feels like it was only yesterday that Nuance unveiled its Dragon Drive! creation to the world, hoping to in the process make drivers' lives easier by delivering a fresh eyes / hands-free messaging system inside connected cars. Unfortunately, back then the savvy company didn't announce any partnerships with auto manufacturers -- still, we had a feeling it wouldn't be too long before one of them would want to come along for the voice dictation ride. The good news is, that's about to change pretty soon. Per the outfit itself, BMW's decided to bring the Dragon Drive! tech to its 2012 7 Series later this month, with the 3 Series Touring and the eco-friendly 3 Series ActiveHybrid expected to get it "later this year." Notably, Dragon Drive! will offer multi-language support, including English, Spanish, Italian, French and German. There's no word yet on just how much the fee for the service will be, but we do know those who land themselves one of these new Beemers will get a two-month trial to take Dragon Drive! for a quick spin.
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Nuance's Dragon Drive! Messaging Available in 2012 BMW 7 and 3 Series Vehicles
BMW is the First Auto Manufacturer to Integrate Dragon Drive! Messaging, Enabling a Smarter, More Intuitive Way to Send and Receive Emails and Text Messages behind the Wheel
BURLINGTON, Mass., Jul 09, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Nuance Communications Inc. NUAN -0.79% today announced that BMW will be making Dragon Drive! Messaging available in the new 2012 BMW 7 Series, BMW 3 Series Touring and BMW 3 Series ActiveHybrid vehicles, with additional models to follow. Dragon Drive! Messaging is a new BMW ConnectedDrive feature as part of the latest generation of BMW Navigation system Professional. Unveiled in May, Dragon Drive! Messaging is Nuance's new automotive-grade connected car service that lets people speak emails and text messages.
The 2012 BMW 7 Series will be the first car ever to feature Dragon Drive! Messaging, hitting the market in July 2012, with the BMW 3 Series Touring and BMW 3 Series ActiveHybrid following later this year. Dragon Drive! Messaging delivers a fully-integrated mobile assistant messaging experience that lets drivers speak, listen, edit and respond to text messages and emails - keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Drivers can speak simple commands to format e-mails by adding new lines, paragraphs, and speaking punctuation and other format commands.
"People want to connect with family, friends, and colleagues while they're on the road, but without the dangerous distractions posed by manually engaging handheld devices," said Arnd Weil, vice president and general manager, automotive, Nuance. "By integrating Dragon Drive! Messaging into the car itself, BMW and Nuance are delivering a smarter, safer way to communicate."
Dragon Drive! Messaging is available as part of Nuance's Dragon Drive! highly-specialized hybrid automotive-grade platform that fully harnesses Nuance's deep experience and research in connected and embedded natural language understanding voice technologies. Drivers can interact naturally with their car, minimizing manual and visual distractions.
In addition to the dictation functionality, the new BMW Navigation system Professional also features natural command and control for almost all functions, powered by Nuance. Drivers can quickly and easily speak one-shot commands for phone calls and navigation, such as "Call John Miller on Mobile" or "Navigate to 100 Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts."
Availability
Dragon Drive! Messaging will be available in BMW vehicles starting in July 2012 in six different languages, including US and UK English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. BMW buyers can test Dragon Drive! Messaging for free for 60 days. Once the trial period expires, Dragon Drive! Messaging will be available as a Nuance service with annual renewal option. To learn more about Dragon Drive! Messaging for BMW, visit www.nuance.com/bmw . To find a list of compatible devices for BMW ConnectedDrive supporting Dragon Drive! Messaging, visit www.bmw.com/bluetooth .
Dragon Drive! is a part of Nuance's broad Dragon portfolio, including Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Dragon Dictation, Dragon Go!, Dragon TV and Dragon ID, all humanizing the way people engage their phones, tablets, TVs, cars and computers - just by using their voice. To learn more about all that Nuance's Dragon portfolio has to offer, visit www.nuance.com and www.nuancemobilelife.com .
