Cerence Inc. announced that it has installed a new cloud service center in Japan, with Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) signing on as its first user. The new cloud center provides AI-powered innovation, products and technologies such as speech recognition, text-to-speech, and natural language understanding. With this new facility, Cerence delivers even faster response times, enabling a smoother experience for automakers and mobility OEMs that have deployed Cerence’s AI products in Japan. Toyota, one of the pioneer users of cloud service from Cerence prior to its spin out, began leveraging the service in 2014 for cloud-based speech recognition technology for the Agent function of Toyota's Connected Services. Agent is an interactive voice service that allows drivers to search and set destinations, check the weather, and search for other information. When drivers speak to Toyota's Connected Services-compatible in-car navigation system, such as "Find a restaurant with a parking lot nearby,” the Agent searches for information and responds verbally, creating a natural, human-like exchange in the car. By now utilizing the cloud hosting site in Japan, the Agent’s response time will be improved, enabling Toyota to provide a smoother and more advanced driver experience to its connected service users in the future.