85%用户从未用过，Siri就此失败了？

刘颖

At Apple’s product announcement event, the company revealed some product stats. Among the numbers shared was this tidbit on Siri usage: The virtual voice assistant receives a whopping one billion requests a week.

It’s an impressive number, no doubt, but it doesn’t mean that the virtual assistant—or any of its competitors—is a true success yet. That’s partly because many users don’t need to rely on Apple’s Siri (not to mention Microsoft’s Cortana or Google voice-based search) on a daily basis—a survey a few years back even found that 85% of iPhone users had never even used Siri. More than anything, though, voice assistants still don’t seem to work as well as they should.

“[These technologies] are still in their very early growth and frankly get more wrong than right,” says analyst Jeff Kagan. “They don’t understand the questions and don’t provide the right answers more times than not.” Whether it’s Google Now not understanding a speaker’s accent or Siri providing a list of search results that requires you to look at your phone, the process of using voice for search and other shortcuts simply isn’t seamless.

The fact that heavyweights like Apple, Google, and Microsoft MSFT 0.50% are still perfecting their products hasn’t dissuaded other companies entering the fray with their own assistant-like technologies. Amazon AMZN 1.87% , for instance, has built its Alexa voice assistant into products such as the Echo speaker and its new Fire TV box, letting users find content and control playback with spoken commands. And then there’s Facebook, which offers a completely different take on the virtual assistant with its M service, employing humans to suggest restaurants and more from within the Messenger app.

Integrating support for voice commands is clearly important, both because it provides a better user experience and it enables software makers like Apple AAPL -1.12% and Google GOOG 1.89% to serve up information via its own applications, all the while gathering more information about your behaviors and interests. But what’s less clear is how soon these voice controls will become smart enough to handle any question or command that’s thrown at them.

Voice assistants have already found a footing in cars, with Apple’s Siri integrated into models from BMW, Chevy, and more. Considering the positive safety implications of a hands-free system for search, in-car controls and more, this space could help expedite an improvement in the technology—though it’s worth pointing out that voice assistants have been found to be increase distraction on the road as well. Still, an iPhone, Android, or Windows Phone is a plenty capable device even without its respective voice assistant, but in the car Siri and others can serve an essential role in keeping users connected.

But despite bumps in the road, Kagan suggests that voice assistants are here to stay: “Today is the day we will someday look back at and laugh at the same way we do when we think about our great-grandparents struggling with their first Ford Model T,” says Kagan.

刘颖

苹果曾在其产品发布会上公布过一些产品数据。其中有一条是关于Siri的使用率：这款虚拟语音助手每周收到的请求多达10亿条。

毫无疑问，这一数字令人印象深刻，不过这并不意味着这款虚拟助手，或是它的任何竞争对手，获得了真正的成功。部分原因在于，许多用户在日常生活中不需要依赖苹果的Siri，更不用说微软的Cortana或是谷歌的语音搜索了。几年前的一项调查甚至发现，85%的iPhone用户从未用过Siri。最重要的是，语音助手的功能看起来并不像它们应有的那样强大。

分析师杰夫•卡干表示：“这些技术仍处在早期发展阶段，老实说，它们犯错的次数多于正确的次数。它们不能理解用户提出的问题，也无法给出正确的答案。”无论是Google Now理解不了用户的口音，还是Siri会提供一长列搜索结果让你自己去看手机，使用语音搜索或是走其他捷径总是不能轻松如愿。

苹果、谷歌和微软这样的巨头仍然在完善他们的产品，但这一事实阻止不了其他公司带着自己的助手类技术加入战局。例如，亚马逊就在Echo和新的Fire TV机顶盒中植入了Alexa语音助手，用户只要说出口令，就能搜寻节目，控制播放。Facebook也不甘落后，他们另辟蹊径，推出了一个机制完全不同的语音助手M。该公司雇佣真人给Messenger用户推荐餐厅或提供更多服务。

语音指令的支持显然十分重要，这不仅仅是因为它能提供更好的用户体验，还能让苹果和谷歌等软件制造商通过自身的应用提供信息，它同时还能收集更多关于用户行为和兴趣的数据。但目前还不清楚，语音控制究竟得花多久时间才能变得足够智能，以应对抛给它们的任何问题或指令。

语音助手在汽车上找到了用武之地，苹果的Siri已经植入了宝马、雪佛兰等车型。考虑到这类功能（包括搜索、车内控制等）可以解放双手，从而提高驾驶安全性，该领域有助于推动技术进步。但需要指出的是，有研究发现语音助手也会让驾驶者在路上分心。尽管如此，iPhone、安卓手机或是Windows Phone即便没有对应的语音助手，也有着强大的功能，但是在汽车里，车载Siri等语音助手是让驾驶员保持互联的必不可少的工具。

道路是曲折的，但卡干认为语音助手能够站稳脚跟。他说：“等到将来回想起今天的情景时，我们的表情估计会像我们现在嘲笑开着第一代福特Model T在路上费力前行的曾祖父母一样。”