Once a fringe feature found only in luxury vehicles, voice recognition has moved into the mainstream as more automakers promise a seamless connection between your car, home and all the devices in between. The opportunity to reach consumers in their vehicles -- and collect all that data -- has automakers, tech giants like Amazon and Google, as well as investors scrambling for a share of the connected cars market. But this is just the beginning. Voice recognition is expected to be an essential feature in future autonomous vehicles, which will see drivers ultimately surrendering the ability to control the car mechanically. Other applications for voice recognition are also emerging, including automated drones, two-wheelers and even air taxis. The share of cars featuring in-car connected services, which voice recognition requires, grew to 45% in 2020 from 30% in 2018, and is expected to reach 60% by 2024, according to IHS Markit.

Your iPhone, television and video game console were likely made in China where the deadly coronavirus is shuttering business operations as scientists race to find a cure. Apple, LG and Amazon are just a few of the household names that are taking measures to protect local workers and business travelers from the deadly outbreak which seemingly began in the central city of Wuhan. As a result, China's manufacturing output is being delayed in ways that will become more pressing as time goes on. Consumer electronics isn't the only sector being rattled by the outbreak that has killed over a thousand people and sickened thousands of others worldwide. Airlines have largely restricted travel into and out of China, curtailing tourism.

One of China's newest autonomous vehicle makers, Neolix, recently put self-driving microvans into action as it looks to scale up its solution to the country's logistics puzzle made more complex by a surge in online shopping. The Beijing-based startup, barely a year old, has already deployed the vehicles in the capital and other cities, but it faces stiff competition from a crowded field where other players, especially e-commerce groups, are racing to develop similar robovans. "Operating 10,000 units will be an industry milestone and it is crucial [for us] to achieve it," said Yu Enyuan, 45, Neolix's founder and chief executive. Neolix's ambition is to replace the roughly 40 million vehicles providing so-called last-mile logistics in China, a market projected to be 3 trillion yuan ($428 billion). These home deliveries are now handled mainly by two- and three-wheel electric motorbikes, zigzagging through neighborhoods to carry everything from milk tea to mattresses.

When Sony Corp. unveiled a cloud gaming pact with archrival Microsoft Corp., it surprised the industry. Perhaps no one was more shocked than employees of Sony's PlayStation division, who have spent almost two decades fighting the U.S. software giant in the $38 billion video game console market. Last week, the companies announced a strategic partnership to codevelop game streaming technology and host some of PlayStation's online services on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform. It comes after PlayStation spent seven years developing its own cloud gaming offering, with limited success. Negotiations with Microsoft began last year and were handled directly by Sony's senior management in Tokyo, largely without the involvement of the PlayStation unit, according to sources familiar with the matter. Staff at the gaming division were caught off guard by the news.

According to the IHS Markit white paper, The Top Trends of 2019: Powered by Transformative Technology, three key trends are expected to have a major effect on both commercial and consumer markets in 2019. The increasing ubiquity of video is forcing significant industry change, as a growing number of players vie for consumer attention and revenue and as businesses adapt to cope with the rising demand. In fact, online video subscriptions from over-the-top (OTT) and traditional media players alone will more than double between 2017 and 2022, by which time they will approach the one billion mark. While TV, home entertainment, social media, video games and other media sectors are at the heart of the video everywhere trend, other industries – including security, education, and healthcare – are also becoming increasingly reliant on video technology. The edge is already transforming the way networks are deployed and devices are built.

Google is offering a limited number of gamers the chance to play popular video game Assassin's Creed Odyssey free of charge via its Chrome browser. In a blogpost outlining its plans for Project Stream, the search engine said it wanted to take streaming to "the next level". But it admitted there were technical challenges involved in streaming graphically rich content via a browser. One expert said it was a bold move from Google to grab gaming revenue. According to analyst company IHS Markit, global spending on games content and services is expected to reach $129bn (£99bn) this year.

As they become more ubiquitous in homes and in various consumer electronics products, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital assistants are likely to be two of the major overarching themes at this week's 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Accelerating growth in both of these markets underscores their surging role in the overall consumer electronics landscape. More than 5 billion consumer devices supporting digital assistants will be in use in 2018, with almost 3 billion more added by 2021, according to IHS Markit, a global provider of critical information, analytics and solutions. Despite this growth, there are still some hurdles to overcome, before consumer adoption is widespread. "Amazon has a clear lead over rivals Google, Apple and Samsung, in terms of the numbers of skills and third-party apps and services supported by its Echo products, but more needs to be done by all platforms, to help users discover new skills and uses for the technology," said Jack Kent, director, operators and mobile media, IHS Markit.

TORONTO – Having built an impressive lead in artificial intelligence, Canada is keen to do the same in driverless cars -- specifically the lidar (laser radar) technology that lets these vehicles see where they're going. The Quebec City-based company makes solid-state technology it says is better and cheaper than earlier versions of lidar and sells it to parts makers, which in turn bake it into their hardware. LeddarTech has attracted big-name industry backers including Delphi Automotive, Germany's Osram Licht and Fiat Chrysler's parts division, which last month participated in a $101 million fundraising round. There's a race on to get self-driving cars on the road over the next four years and lidar is a key component in making that possible. The market for the technology will grow tenfold to $2.5 billion by 2027, according to Akhilesh Kona, a senior analyst at IHS Markit, and become much bigger as cars become increasingly autonomous.

Newswire) Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the next big growth areas for the mobile industry according to a white paper released by IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, ahead of Mobile World Congress. "Smartphones will both be the interface for consumer AI and deliver the vast amount of data technology companies need to train AI systems" "We see AI making smart devices even smarter with improved user experiences," said Ian Fogg, director of mobile and telecom analysis at IHS Markit. "Existing AI agents like Apple's Siri and Google Assistant will expand across the industry, complemented by embedded AI in all parts of mobile devices from cameras, to audio, to machine." "Smartphones will both be the interface for consumer AI and deliver the vast amount of data technology companies need to train AI systems," Fogg said. Software investments and partnerships are critical for hardware companies to create smarter AI-enabled experiences, said the IHS Markit white paper.

"We see AI making smart devices even smarter with improved user experiences," says Ian Fogg (pictured right), director of mobile and telecom analysis at IHS Markit. "Existing AI agents like Apple's Siri and Google Assistant will expand across the industry, complemented by embedded AI in all parts of mobile devices from cameras, to audio, to machine." "Smartphones will both be the interface for AI and deliver the vast amount of data technology companies need to train AI systems," Fogg says. Software investments and partnerships are critical for hardware companies to create smarter AI-enabled experiences, says the IHS Markit white paper. Vendors such as Google, Apple, Sony, Microsoft and Samsung have heavily invested in the development of their own AI and voice-assistant capabilities.