It’s an exciting time for the automotive telematics community with so much happening in the infotainment space. Hands free calls and text messages, voice commands and touchscreen options, audio for wireless streaming –the dynamism and innovation seems endless.

According to this week’s Telematics Update latest reports, IMS research has forecast that voice recognition technologies will find their way into a large number of new vehicles by 2019.  What this would imply is that dashboard displays will have to evolve to keep in tune with the new integration.

Apparently voice recognition technologies do pose a problem of sorts, especially in the Asian markets where there are so many dialects. However, apart from this being a challenge to the automotive telematics industry, there is tremendous scope for innovation and intuitive technology.

Precksha Saksena-Sood, managing director of Telematics Update agrees that 2013 is going to be very exciting for telematics innovation. “With key updates and connectivity related announcements from Ford, GM and BMW on their infotainment platforms set to take place at our 13th annual Telematics Detroit conference in June, it’s clear that telematics is at the top of the automotive agenda,” observed Sood.

HARMAN, which has brought comfort and safety features to drivers all over the world continues to feature audio and infotainment innovations. It sees the evolution of gesture-based HMIs as a means to make operating the infotainment systems and all the functionalities in the car in a safer way.

Hans Roth, director of technology marketing, Harman indicated that such a system is currently available for the Audi and BMW and simplifies user functions and requirements.

Since the infotainment landscape is always buzzing with activity and changing so dynamically, the telematics ecosystem needs to be in touch with what is happening. Telematics Update’s weekly brief updates the auto-telematics community on all the latest announcements from automakers and key telematics companies.