GM Partners on Next-Generation Voice-Control System

General Motors Co. and British software company VocallQ Ltd. are collaborating on a system they say can outperform current technologies in enabling a vehicle's occupants to use spoken commands to operate everything from the windshield wipers to the entertainment system.

Bloomberg News cites unnamed sources who say the two companies are negotiating a contract after a year of co-development work.

VocallQ is a spinoff from the U.K. University of Cambridge's Dialogue Systems Group. Work with the startup is being coordinated through GM's Advanced Technical Center in Israel.

An analyst tells Bloomberg the VocallQ dialog management system is more advanced than current voice-command technologies, particularly in terms of its ability to learn a user's speech patterns. GM began offering Apple Inc.'s Siri Eyes Free voice-activated feature in several 2014 models.