IVECO Driver Pal: IVECO’s pioneering on-board vocal driver companion built on Amazon Web Services with Amazon Alexa features

IVECO launched today IVECO Driver Pal, its pioneering vocal driver companion on its new Daily and IVECO S-WAY ranges in a live digital event for its dealer network and the international trade press. IVECO Driver Pal has been built with the support of AWS Professional Services and is powered by AWS Machine Learning, voice, security and serverless technologies, including Amazon Comprehend, Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Lambda, Amazon Translate, and uses Amazon’s Alexa cloud-based voice service to enhance the driver’s experience.

The solution provides drivers with a helpful voice Artificial Intelligence experience on the road, enabling them to bring their digital life on board and interact with their truck through voice commands.

IVECO Driver Pal is designed to help the driver optimise their route and stops, adapting to events on the way by relying on real-time information from the IVECO driver community, IVECO support services and the web. This enables them to conduct secondary tasks while keeping their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road.

“We are delighted by the launch of IVECO Driver Pal, which sets a new standard in the automotive industry,” said Fabrizio Conicella, Global Head of Digital & Adv Technology Commercial & Specialty Vehicles. “By leveraging the breadth of AWS’s portfolio and the Amazon Working

Backwards Innovation methodology applied during the AWS Digital Innovation Program, IVECO has been able to innovate and deliver in record time a new service that fundamentally changes the way drivers can interact with their vehicles and the drivers’ community. The new IVECO driver voice companion reinforces the company’s future digital strategy as it strives to offer a completely new way for drivers to perform their tasks and interact with their vehicle, while raising the level of safety and comfort.”

IVECO Driver Pal offers all features that enable drivers to bring their digital life on board and facilitate their personal and work life: through voice commands they can perform all sorts of tasks whilst minimizing distractions – manage their calendar, play music or their favourite podcasts, call other Alexa-enabled devices, check the news, weather and traffic reports, and even access their Alexa- enabled home automation devices.

IVECO Driver Pal takes the lead with an industry first by introducing two unique skills developed with AWS Professional Services and Alexa Auto team: MYIVECO and MYCOMMUNITY. The MYIVECO skill enables the driver to interact with the vehicle in an entirely new way. They can use vocal commands to manage their journey and plan their route: set up their destination, find parking places and service stations on the way with their navigation system, change route to avoid heavy traffic and search for restaurants and hotels. They can check their Driver Style Evaluation score and ask for tips to drive more safely and efficiently. On long-distance missions, IVECO Driver Pal will even tell them when they need to stop for their statutory breaks based on tachograph information.

The MYIVECO skill also enables drivers to launch a vehicle check list before their trip and be informed about maintenance and health status of their vehicle’s main components such as tyres, batteries, filter, clutch and brake pads. They can access information about the truck’s efficiency, view tips on how to improve it, or book a service stop at the dealership of their choice. If they have a technical issue, they can ask IVECO’s Control Room for help and, if necessary, activate the Assistance Non-Stop service and access the Remote Assistance Service and Over-The-Air updates.

Drivers can also use the MYIVECO skill to activate several in-cab functions, such as setting the air conditioning and heating systems, switching lights on and off, turning on media and many more. This means they remain focused on the road.

The second exclusive skill, MYCOMMUNITY acts like a digital CB radio, allowing the users to be part of a driver community. They can exchange voice messages with other drivers and search for messages along their route or in the area near their destination, for example. They can share and listen to information about traffic conditions or queues at border controls, which will help to avoid unexpected delays, or get tips about the best parking areas or restaurants and other useful information. Language is no barrier, as MYCOMMUNITY will translate to and from English, German, French, Italian and Spanish – and more languages will follow.

The MYCOMMUNITY skill will be open to all drivers (not only the IVECO ones), enabling the creation of a wider driver community where they exchange advice, hints and keep in touch with other drivers on their route.