Global provider of location data and platform services Here Technologies has announced a new partnership with SoundHound Inc., an innovator in conversational intelligence technologies, to create voice-enabled navigation systems.
The partners aim to add a speech-controlled navigation experience to SoundHound’s Houndify voice-enabled artificial intelligence (AI) platform. The partnership provides Houndify developers with the ability to apply real-world location data from Here Technologies to their applications to improve the driver experience and enhance safety. Drivers will be able to activate navigation by simply speaking, as opposed to keying in the information or logging on to a secondary mobile app. Houndify is an independent AI 
platform that enables developers and business owners to deploy a custom voice assistant anywhere and retain control of their brands and users. It provides all the ingredients necessary for voice and AI integration: fast speech recognition, sophisticated natural language understanding, custom wake words, easy to use developer tools, knowledge graphs, and a large and rapidly growing number of domains.
Developers will be able to fast-track the development of location-centric applications by making use of Here’s global map data and curated location content in combination with readily available location services, including rendering, search, routing, transit, and positioning. The integration will provide precise, end-to-end tracking and accurate, real-time and historical locations. This is especially useful in cars, where a vehicle’s ability to understand its precise positioning, retain contextual awareness of the environment, and store local knowledge of road rules is crucial. Here will provide mapping data on more than 200 countries for the newest Houndify domain.
California-based SoundHound turns sound into understanding and actionable meaning. The company is enabling humans to interact with the things around them in the same way that they interact with each other: by speaking naturally to mobile phones, cars, TVs, navigation devices or any other part of the emerging ‘connected’ world. The company’s Hound consumer product uses proprietary Speech-to-Meaning and Deep Meaning Understanding technologies to create a groundbreaking smartphone experience, and is the first product to build on the Houndify platform.
“We are excited to partner with Here and to bring their wealth of global mapping data and services to our Houndify customers, especially those in the automotive industry,” said Amir Arbabi, SoundHound’s vice president of business development. “Adding Here Technologies as a new Houndify domain will allow us to further expand our voice AI capabilities and provide a deeper set of location-based data for our global audience.”
Kirk Mitchell, Here’s SVP and GM for the Americas region, commented, “Adding our data to the Houndify platform will help to provide a seamless experience for developers adding voice navigation or location awareness to the consumer applications they’re building. We’re thrilled to partner with SoundHound to provide a safer, more natural way for consumers to engage with mobile navigation applications.”
