Automotive Voice Research: Explosive Growth in Features Like "See and Speak", 35-Fold Increase in External Voice Interaction in Two Years
ResearchInChina has released the Automotive Voice Industry Report, 2026. This report covers the installation data of automotive voice systems, the application of automotive voice by OEMs, and research on the supply side including automotive voice system integrators, corpus processors, and chip vendors.
In 2025, automotive voice systems were installed in about 19.428 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1.8%, with a penetration rate of about 84.7%, basically realizing standard installation in new vehicles.
"Wake-up Free" Function: The penetration rate reached 60.6% in 2025, with the installations surging by 458.4% compared with 2023;
"See and Speak" Function: The penetration rate hit 40.3% in 2025, with the installations rising by 756.7% compared with 2023;
"Continuous Dialogue" Function: The penetration rate reached 66.1% in 2025, with the installations growing by 610.1% compared with 2023;
"External Voice Interaction" Function: The penetration rate stood at 2.7% in 2025, with the installations skyrocketing by 3509.2% compared with 2023.
The penetration rates of the three core functions – "Wake-up Free" (60.6%), "Continuous Dialogue" (66.1%), and "See and Speak" (40.3%) – have seen multi-fold growth from 2023 to 2025. These voice interaction functions, once regarded as "value-added features" or "premium functions", now merely serve as the basic threshold to judge whether an automotive voice system is "qualified".
1. Installations of "See and Speak" Function Approached 10 Million Vehicles.
In 2025, the "See and Speak" function was installed about 9.233 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 69.0% and a surge of 756.7% compared with 2023.
In terms of the installation structure by vehicle price range, the installations of the "See and Speak" function achieved growth across all price ranges in 2025, but tilted towards lower price ranges.
The proportion of installations in the price range of RMB100,000-150,000 increased by 9.2 percentage points year on year to 27.7% (about 2.558 million vehicles). In 2025, a total of more than 120 models were equipped with the "See and Speak" function, doubling the 60 models in 2024.
The second largest increase was seen in the price range of RMB0-100,000, where the proportion of installations rose by 8.0 percentage points year on year to 11.2% (about 1.036 million vehicles). Around 40 models were equipped with the function in 2025, tripling the 13 models in 2024.
Application Case 1 of "See and Speak" Function: In August 2025, Firefly added the "See and Speak" function via an OTA update, enabling global visibility for vehicle control, navigation, and media.
Application Case 2 of "See and Speak" Function: In December 2025, Xpeng MONA 03 optimized its OTA feature to achieve the "See and Speak" capability in third-party applications. Users can control and click most buttons in third-party applications directly through voice commands. For example, when using video applications, users can switch categories such as "Movies/Anime/Recommendations" or play specified videos via voice.
2. Installations of "External Voice Interaction" Function Enjoyed A 203.4% Year-on-Year Growth.
In 2025, the installations of the "External Voice Interaction" function reached about 624,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 203.4% and a 3509.2% rise compared with 2023.
In terms of the installation structure by vehicle price range, the installations of the "External Voice Interaction" function saw growth in all price ranges except the low-price range of RMB0-100,000 in 2025, tilting towards the mid-to-high price ranges.
The installations in the price range of RMB100,000-150,000 reached about 262,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 75.8%, accounting for 1.9% of the total, a year-on-year decrease of 30.5 percentage points. The brands with the highest installations were Deepal, Changan, Changan NEVO and Geely Galaxy, among others.
The installations in the price range of RMB250,000-300,000 hit about 131,000 vehicles, a year-on-year surge of 4162.5%, accounting for 21.0% of the total, up by 19.5 percentage points on an annual basis. The core driver was a rash of launches and hot sales of models of emerging carmakers such as Xiaomi YU7 and LUXEEDR7/S7.
3. Synergy Between External Voice and Sentry Mode
External voice functions can be roughly categorized into "Control Commands," "Reminder Broadcasts," and "Social Contact/Callout", with various functions subdivided and combined across different vehicle models.
Currently, the control scope of external voice covers "vehicle components (doors, windows, trunk, front hood, rearview mirrors, charging port cover, car locks, etc.), multimedia systems (such as turning on music, light shows, and taking photos), and intelligent driving (such as pull-in/out)" and other fields.
With the upgrading of external voice interaction technology, its control boundary keeps expanding, and its interaction distance has broken through spatial limitations, evolving from "near-field command-based one-way interaction" to "remote collaborative two-way interaction".
In September 2025, AITO M9 added the "Remote View and Intercom for Parking via External Voice" (also known as "Remote Parking Intercom") function. Relying on the deep synergy between Huawei Qiankun ADS 4.0 and the HarmonyOS cockpit, this function enables intelligent interaction in parking scenarios. It allows users to engage in two-way intercom with people outside the vehicle via the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA) APP, view high-definition images of the vehicle's surroundings, and initiate voice commands to complete intelligent parking (pull-in/out).
Instant Alert: Based on the sentry mode, the system sends an alert message to the owner's mobile APP immediately.
Remote Viewing: Upon receiving the alert, the owner can remotely access the vehicle's surrounding cameras via their phone to view the live scene, and understand the severity of the incident and the surroundings.
Remote Intercom: The owner can conduct direct remote voice intercom with relevant personnel on-site (e.g., the person responsible for the accident) with the vehicle's microphone and speaker system – for example, reminding the other party not to leave or negotiating for handling.
Remote Voice Parking: After confirming the situation, the owner can initiate an intelligent parking command on the mobile APP, and the vehicle will pull in/out of the parking space automatically. During parking, the vehicle will issue voice reminders via the external speaker (e.g., "Vehicle is parking, please pay attention") to ensure the safety of the surrounding environment. The owner does not need to be present personally to move the vehicle.
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