Autos Fuddled by Accents Send Ford, VW Seeking Fix
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Colin and Rachel Britton have a failure to communicate when they slip into their $95,000 Mercedes GL500. Not with each other, with their car. Its voice recognition system is dumbfounded by their British accents, especially Rachel’s.
“The car just doesn’t understand,” said Colin Britton, a software executive in Lexington, Massachusetts, whose wife tries to trick the system with a Southern drawl. That makes him and their three teenagers laugh uproariously, which flummoxes the system too. “We find it hilariously funny.”