As the autonomous vehicles landscape is rapidly evolving on a daily basis worldwide, it is evident that more and more major Automotive giants are entering the market. The transport revolution has not left these major players "unmoved" investing significantly into new technologies; collaborating with government and policy makers; and with brands working closer together than ever before across different sectors. With this in mind, it was interesting to see that the automotive market the past 2 weeks has been focused on a major investment by one of the industry's biggest players. KIA and Hyundai announced on the 16th of January that they will be investing 100 million euros in Arrival. The big investment signals the beginning of a strategic partnership between the 2 automotive makers and the start-up with a common goal to jointly accelerate the adoption of commercial electric vehicles globally.

Hyundai and Kia both have reputations as early adopters of in-car tech, and that's truer than ever now that voice assistants are becoming a practical reality on the road. The Korean automakers have revealed that they plan to include AI assistants in their new cars starting from 2019, with every vehicle being'connected' by 2025. As Hyundai explained, they've been working with SoundHound to create an Intelligent Personal Agent (based on Houndify) that both makes proactive suggestions (such as reminding you of a meeting) and offers remote control of both your car and your home. This sounds a whole lot like what other voice assistants do, but the car brands are counting on support for "multiple-command recognition" as the ace up their sleeve. If you tell your car to check the weather and turn on the lights at the same time, it'll do both instead of scratching its head like so many other AI helpers.