Cortana is well on her way to becoming a fully featured driving assistant. Though with this new development, users will primarily be able to work on an Office document while on the road.
But it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft’s personal digital assistant gets control over some car features like navigation or turning on the air conditioning, all that good stuff.
And that is because HARMAN has just announced Office 365 integration in its infotainment systems, which also enables Cortana in vehicles.
Obviously, voice recognition systems still have their limits, and still cannot compare to the usability that the traditional combo of mouse and keyboard — but it’s a start and Microsoft only plans to improve things from here on.
In the words of Phil Eyler, president, HARMAN Connected Car:
“Working with Microsoft is a natural fit for HARMAN as we continue our track record of making the car more sophisticated, productive and intelligent.
Drivers want an immersive, and personalized experience in the car. Increasingly, that includes strong demands for richer productivity. This collaboration will bring these functionalities to market with, importantly, great reliability, security and minimal driver distraction.”
The company showcased these capabilities at CES 2016, detailing how this integration will serve as the very foundation of the infotainment system in vehicles.
All this, certainly opens up new doors for Microsoft to expand beyond PCs and mobile devices, and though things are just starting here, we could be in for some major improvements in the automobile domain in the next couple of years.
Onwards.
source:windows10update
