Experts predict that, in the future, our cars may know how we feel.

While a growing number of today’s vehicles offer voice recognition, the cars of tomorrow may be able to pick up on changes in our facial expressions as well as inflections in our voices, in order to determine how we feel.

“We’re well on the road to developing the empathetic car which might tell you a joke to cheer you up, offer advice when you need it, remind you of birthdays and keep you alert on a long drive,” said Fatima Vital, Senior Director, Marketing Automotive, Nuance Communications, which helped Ford develop voice recognition of the SYNC in-car connectivity system.

Dominic Watt, Senior Lecturer, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, says, “The car will soon be our assistant, travel companion and sympathetic ear, and you’ll be able to discuss everything and ask anything, to the point many of us might forget we’re even talking to a machine.”