Cars guided by voice control, electrics on Tata Motors' radar

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Soon, your voice could replace the buttons and switches that help change music, make calls, start or shut head lights and wipers, while driving.

Given an average person spends four hours each day (or nearly 60 days in a year) commuting in his car, manufacturers are working overtime on a host of innovative technologies aimed at making the journey less stressful.

Tata Motors, India’s fourth largest car maker, is the latest to join the ranks as it scouts for driver-friendly technologies that could meet the requirements of the next-gen car buyer who is looking for flawless access to a digital ecosystem.

Speaking to Moneycontrol Timothy Leverton, President and Head, Advanced and Product Engineering, Tata Motors said, "Besides other things we are working on the voice control (technology) and being able to develop effective solutions for voice controls which can make use of all the languages in India. It could be about how you access digital systems."

The Mumbai-based company is putting its weight behind new products equipping it with latest technologies to better appeal to the young buyer. For a sustained focus on development on new technologies, the company has already formed a step-down entity under the brand TaMo.

Progressively, TaMo will become a hot bed for experiments especially in areas of alternate fuel technology like electric and hybrids, according to Leverton. The focus won't be on creation of hybrid/electric technology alone but creating an affordable solution of it.

"TaMo will be the testing ground for alternate propulsion system like for hybrids and electric. Everybody is fighting with the economics of electric vehicles. They actually offer a lot to customers but there is no economy model in the high volume center. That is something we will be looking hard at," added Leverton.

Tata Motors has invested heavily in development of several electric prototypes on conventional cars such as Indica Vista, Bolt, Nano and Ace. It has, however, refrained from launching any of them commercially as the purchase cost will be prohibitively high.

"We have invested a lot in electric vehicle technology. We have a very good position and yet are not able take it across the market. I think in a low volume environment, there is a way for us to do that. We don’t believe we have really taken any advantage of the investments we have made in this field so far. We recently showcased Bolt EV. We are hoping that through TaMo we will be able to break some of these constraints and if they work out then we could have them in the mainstream," added Leverton.

TaMo's breakthrough innovations will ultimately find its way to the mainstream line-up of Tata Motors allowing it to be equally competitive in the face of strong competition from Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra who are believed to be working on the same lines.

"TaMo will develop solutions which our mainstream customers will want. The way I see it is that if TaMo is successful in doing that, these things will get translated into the mainstream business and then TaMo will go on to the next new thing. So the job of TaMo is to be in the edge of innovation and solution," added Leverton.

The company recently opened an office in San Francisco to be close to the innovation hub - Silicon Valley. A small team of 10 people have been appointed who are able to establish contacts and run projects and to discover the trends and new technology for the future. "We need to work with start-ups having a range of different skill sets. We don’t want layers of management," added Leverton.