South Korea’s Hyundai Motor said on Monday an in-car voice assistant would be featured on the new Sonata hitting the market on Thursday, underscoring the carmaker’s commitment to revive the heyday of its flagship sedan model.

The voice-recognition interactive assistant service co-developed with Kakao is built on a car connectivity system based on Kakao’s artificial intelligence platform Kakao i. The two firms have partnered since early 2017 to make various functions of smart speaker Kakao Mini available inside a car.

Voice recognition services supported by the new Sonata’s voice assistant include news briefing, weather, movie and TV guides, stock information, current issues, sports scores, real-time keyword rankings, translation, currency rate, and road navigation.

At the touch of a button on the steering wheel, the driver can ask a question to the voice assistant. Hyundai’s existing voice recognition car navigation is also upgraded to a level to support natural language processing.

Hyundai and Kakao have set up service categories focusing on content that does not interfere with safe driving, and will continue to expand the services available through verification.

Hyundai Motor hopes the all-new Sonata with high-end makeover will recoup its reputation as the once bestselling mid-sized sedan is now mostly run by taxi drivers. Preorders in the first week hit 10,203 units.

By Lee Jong-hyuk and Minu Kim

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