Cars will soon be able...

Cars will soon be able to understand up to 300,000 words after work to boost in-car speech recognition systems proved a success. The move will make driving easier and safer. Experts from electronics giant Siemens are completing elocution lessons for the technology so it can recognise a large number of voice commands instantly. Drivers will be able to give instructions such as: “Raise the front passenger window and lock the doors.” The first applications will be for sat-navs, where speaking will do away with tedious typing. “Dialogue is the key element of future speech recognition,” said a Siemens spokesman.