Pioneer, the birth of "NP1" that navigates only by voice-attached to the windshield, also has a drive recorder function

On February 10, Pioneer announced a new voice-operated navigation system "NP1". Attached to the front window of the car, it leads to the destination while interacting with the driver. Release date is March 2nd. "Basic Plan" (tax included price: 65,780 yen) with communication and service usage fee for one year and "Value Plan" with communication and service usage fee for three years (same price: 93,500 yen) are available.

The NP1 is a navigation system that integrates a microphone, speakers, front, in-car/rear cameras, a light bar, operation buttons, etc. into a body about the size of a 300ml PET bottle. It does not come with a monitor, so you can set your destination and search for nearby facilities by saying something like "NP1, look for a nearby outlet." While driving, it is characterized by navigation with only voice guidance, such as "Convenience store is on the left" and "It's about 10 minutes, it's on the road."

As the number of devices used in the car increases, such as the high functionality of smartphones and the increase in in-vehicle devices, the operation becomes complicated. While focusing on driving with eyes and hands, Pioneer focuses on ears and voice. Navigation developed with voice as the main axis becomes NP1.

In development, we reviewed the utterance structure from scratch and changed it to a form that guides the shape of the road and landmarks by voice. It guides you to places such as convenience stores, traffic lights, and railroad crossings, helping you to drive with peace of mind.

If you ask "where are you now?", it will answer where you are, and you can get a sense of security by being able to communicate in real time.

The main unit is equipped with an LTE SIM card, enabling constant connection to the cloud. For this reason, it is equipped with advanced search functions such as proposing optimal routes that take traffic congestion and tolls into consideration based on real-time traffic information and probe data accumulated in the past, as well as providing information on vacant parking lots. Maps are always updated automatically.

It is possible to customize your own by continuing to use it, such as suggesting an easy route by taking into account your driving data, day of the week, date and time, and destination. It also has a "drive topic" function that teaches information such as famous places and sunset times by combining time, location, and maps, but it has a learning function such as not guiding routes that have passed two days in a row. .

If you use the dedicated app "My NP1", it is also possible to support display of map display and distance to the destination on the smartphone screen. It also has a drive recorder function using the camera on the main unit, but you can also check the recorded content from the app.

Pioneer Representative Director and President Shiro Yahara said, "The NP business is considering products for motorcycles as well as four-wheeled vehicles. We are developing a product like this.Our targets are 1.5 billion units of automobiles owned worldwide and 700 million units of motorcycles.Looking at this huge market, we aim to achieve 30 billion yen in three years and 2030. Pioneer is looking at an aggressive target of 100 billion yen, and Pioneer believes that if revenue from the service business, which it is particularly focusing on, surpasses that of hardware, Pioneer could become a company that can aim for a relisting. I'm talking," he commented.