An agent device includes a microphone which collects audio in a vehicle cabin, a speaker which outputs audio to the vehicle cabin, an interpreter which interprets the meaning of the audio collected by the microphone, a display provided in the vehicle cabin, and an agent controller which displays an agent image in a form of speaking to an occupant in a region of the display and causes the speaker to output audio by which the agent image speaks to at least one occupant, and the agent controller changes the face direction of the agent image to an direction different from an direction of the occupant who is a conversation target in a case that an utterance with respect to the face direction is interpreted by the interpreter after the agent image is displayed on the display.

An agent device is equipped with a plurality of agent controllers which provide a service including causing an output device to output a response of voice in accordance with an utterance of an occupant of a vehicle, in which a first agent controller included in the plurality of agent controllers provides an agent controller different from the first agent controller with first service information on the service to be provided to the occupant.

Systems, methods and apparatuses to recognize a threat to a vehicle from a distance and generate alarms or alerts in response. For example, a camera of a vehicle in a parking state can capture an image of the surrounding of the vehicle. When a person approaching the vehicle from a distance is identified from the image, an artificial neural network evaluates, based at least in part on one or more images from the camera, the level of threat from the person approaching the vehicle. In response to the threat level being above a threshold, the vehicle can generate an alarm to deter illegal activities and/or send an alert to a remote device, such as a mobile device of an owner, driver, authorized user, or security agent.

In a method for adjusting a vehicle component a function of an operating element is selected by a first operating process and the vehicle component is adjusted by a second operating process carried out manually on the operating element. The first operating process is caused by a speech input, a gesture, and/or a gaze.

Aspects of the technology relate to assisting a passenger in an autonomous vehicle without a driver. For instance, after a door of the vehicle is opened, a predetermined period of time may be waited by processors of computing devices of the vehicle. After waiting the predetermined period of time and when the vehicle's door remains open, a set of instructions for closing the vehicle's door may be played by the processors through a speaker of the vehicle. Once the door of the vehicle is closed, an announcement may be played by the processors through the speaker requesting that the passenger press a first button to initiate a ride to a destination. In response to the first button being pressed, the ride to the destination may be initiated by the processors by maneuvering the vehicle autonomously to the destination.

Systems, methods and apparatuses to recognize a threat to a vehicle from a distance and generate alarms or alerts in response. For example, a camera of a vehicle in a parking state can capture an image of the surrounding of the vehicle. When a person approaching the vehicle from a distance is identified from the image, an artificial neural network evaluates, based at least in part on one or more images from the camera, the level of threat from the person approaching the vehicle. In response to the threat level being above a threshold, the vehicle can generate an alarm to deter illegal activities and/or send an alert to a remote device, such as a mobile device of an owner, driver, authorized user, or security agent.

An apparatus for use with vehicle includes one or more cameras located in the vehicle, used to detect a figure and/or a behavior of a user sat in the vehicle. The apparatus also includes a controller communicated with the cameras, which obtains the detected figure and/or behavior of the user, and optimizes one or more components of the vehicle for the user, based on the detected figure and/or behavior of the user.

An instrument is provided with: a body; a speaker having a plurality of flanges that bulge outward from the body; a case that has a recess for housing the speaker. The recess has a side wall, an installation surface on which the speaker is installed, and a plurality of fixing parts that fix the flanges in an orthogonal direction orthogonal to the installation surface and that bulge inward from the side wall. The speaker can rotate about the rotational axis in the orthogonal direction up to a fixing position where the flanges and the fixing parts overlap each other in the orthogonal direction after the speaker has been disposed in an unfixing position where the flanges and the fixing parts do not overlap each other in the orthogonal direction.

A system for controlling operation of a vehicle, the system comprising: a voice synthesizer unit for providing voice communication to a driver; a speech recognition unit for receiving speech from a driver; a breath alcohol sensor unit for detecting a presence of alcohol on the breath of a driver and providing a signal representative of the same; a vehicle operation interface for controlling operation of the vehicle; and a controller for (i) selectively causing the voice synthesizer unit to speak to the driver, (ii) operating the speech recognition unit to detect speech by the driver, (iii) receiving the signal from the breath alcohol sensor unit, and (iv) depending on the signal received from the breath alcohol sensor unit, providing a command to the vehicle operation interface to control operation of the vehicle.

A driving support method for a vehicle includes: acquiring a sound of a sound source placed outside the vehicle; and displaying, on a display portion, driving support information corresponding to an utterance content of the sound, the utterance content of the sound being recognized by a sound recognition process, in a display mode suggesting a relative position of the sound source from the vehicle, the relative position being specified based on the sound.