Background Honda Smile Mission is a daily radio show where a reporter introduces Japan while driving a car named Petiteco. Currently, the listeners are drivers. Our mission was to find a way to increase interaction with more people, and attract interest to capture new listeners.

Solution

We turned the show’s car that carried interview equipment, into a car radio-personality! A car that can communicate by itself!　

To do so, we structured an original radio personality dialog system: installed 3 years of footage, then for six month taught the car modern Japanese language analyzing all open conversations on the web/SNS. The car’s communication skills evolved with a machine learning technique through the journey. On the website, everyone could check out Petoteco’s current location. Sharing info about local places, the car finds its next destination from recommendations. On twitter, everyone could talk with Petiteco. These conversations created the next show. Petiteco also does a free style rap featuring places, things, people it met.

Results In less than a month, Petiteco was featured on TV, newspapers, internet, huge spread out on SNS ... Visitors to the show’s website increased 10 times, that’s more than 2 million people. We gained many new listeners!