Every year, the time we spend commuting to and from work and school has only been increasing. According to a study by AAA., time has increased 8% since 2014. Today, on average, Americans drive 31.5 miles and spend about an hour in their cars every day. As this time spent driving increases, car manufacturers and drivers are searching for ways to make the hours behind-the-wheel more comfortable and enjoyable.

Recognizing the need to enhance the driving experience, and based on Hound users preferences, SoundHound, Inc is launching Hound In Car (version 1 now in beta). This newest enhancement to the Hound voice search and assistant app provides hands-free navigation and music for people on the go. Simply saying, “OK Hound…Let’s drive” activates the In Car panel and signals that the user is in the car. Drivers can easily and quickly navigate to any location (provided by Waze or Google Maps) while listening to their favorite playlists on Spotify. The need to repeatedly input addresses is eliminated when traveling to preset locations like work and home.

Hit the road with Hound

Hound In Car automatically syncs with the car’s Bluetooth wireless technology, enabling a seamless transition into the car. Even without bluetooth, drivers can use Hound In Car just by saying, “OK Hound… Let’s drive.”

Power-up Hound In Car and keep it on by plugging your phone into your car’s power source. Once on, the app fully integrates with your car’s hardware, allowing you to interact with music from the buttons on your steering wheel or the prompts on your navigation screen. Play a song, replay it, fast-forward to the next song, pause your music and more, all through simple voice commands.

Keep your hands on the wheel

Two things drivers do the most are fiddling with the car radio and interacting with the navigation system. Hound In Car provides fast, accurate results and eliminates the need to manually adjust music and navigation. Drivers also don’t need to toggle between music and navigation or risk missing a turn as Hound In Car will automatically lower the music volume when navigation is in progress.

On Android, if you do decide to leave the Hound app and want to return, simply use the wake word, “OK Hound…” or touch the Hound picture-in-picture window.

The hands-free feature powered by our Houndify Voice AI technology eliminates the need to physically select a new song or playlist. Drivers can now say things like:

• “Play top songs by Madonna”
• “Play my favorites”
• “Play my oldies playlist”

Listen to a playlist and play your favorite songs during your commute. It’s easy when you use Spotify with Hound. Fully integrated with Spotify, Hound In Car gives you the ability to control your music with simple voice prompts, including:

• “Skip to the next song”
• “Turn up the volume”
• “Play my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist”

Let Hound In Car be your co-pilot

With Hound In Car, drivers get directions from point A to point B with simple voice commands like:

• “Let’s go to work”
• “Let’s drive”
• “Find a grocery store near me”
• “Take me home”
• “Find the nearest gas station”
• “Stop driving”

In addition to helping drivers navigate from point A to point B, Hound In Car provides an estimated time of arrival even before they hit start. Timely, updated time to destination information allows drivers to anticipate slow downs, helping them prepare and reducing the frustration of the daily commute.

Dark mode

As the outside light dims, having a bright light inside the car can cause eye strain and glare. To adjust for changes in light, Hound In Car automatically enters dark mode. For those who prefer to have a lighter background, the app can be set to remain bright regardless of changes in light.

Just let Hound In Car know your preference with a simple voice command:

• “Turn off dark mode”
• “Turn on dark mode”

Drive with the power of Hound

Interacting with a voice assistant can be frustrating if the interface doesn’t understand your commands and delivers inaccurate results. In too many cases, the user has to learn a new language to get the desired outcome via a voice query. And even then, the limited and slow speech recognition capabilities of the device deliver less than optimum results.

Powered by Houndify’s proprietary Speech-to-Meaning™ technology, Hound In Car has the highest accuracy rate and fastest response time of any voice assistant on the market. Houndify’s Speech-to-Meaning™ engine combines Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) into one single function, significantly improving both the speed and accuracy of its responses. Simply stated, Hound In Car listens and processes speech in the same manner humans do, allowing it to deliver results in the same way a friend might.

We’re just getting started with Hound In Car. In future releases, we’ll seek to delight you with additional features including personalization, en-route stops, calendar reminders and much more.

Using the same Hound app you’ve come to rely on to make calls, find local businesses and listen to music—Hound In Car adds voice-enabled navigation and music functionality to your daily commute. Set your destination, know your ETA before you leave, and listen to your favorite Spotify playlists along the way, all from one reliable source.

Ready to hit the road?

“OK Hound, Let’s drive!”

With Hound In Car as your co-pilot, your drive just got easier. Get going with Hound In Car Now