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Throughout the train, the woman’s voice can be heard saying, “Next stop: Baden.” Since the calendar change on December 10, SBB’s voice is no longer the same. Much to the displeasure of some passengers.
“This new voice is extremely robotic, can’t pronounce city names correctly, stops mid-sentence, and sounds extremely annoying,” writes one user on Reddit. “Why would SBB get rid of one of its best products?” he continues.
The comments made show that many train passengers have the same opinion. Because SBB’s well-known voice was obviously very popular: ‘I could spend the rest of my life with this voice,’ they say.
Is artificial intelligence behind this?
“Since the timetable change last December, digitized public transport sounds are also used on the trains of SBB and its subsidiaries and partners,” said an SBB spokesperson in response to Blick’s question. So far the sounds have been used at SBB and BLS train stations. It has been used in all trains of SBB and its subsidiaries and partners since the beginning of December.
This means that the voice of Isabelle Augustin (59) will disappear from the trains forever. She has been SBB’s Swiss-German spokesperson for years. Only in French does the sound remain the same.
The new public transport sounds are based on digitally produced recordings of human voices in German, French, Italian and English. Complete sentences are formed at train stations. The technology on trains is different again: Only sentence fragments are created and these are put together as needed.
SBB makes corrections “when necessary”.
“This allows random sentences to be created from digitally pre-generated individual words and word fragments,” the spokesperson explains. This will be why the voice sounds robotic and sounds like it’s stopping mid-sentence. SBB wants to increase efficiency and save costs.
The rail operator is aware that the new public transport sounds are not perfect yet. Some customers also complained directly to SBB about the new sound system. “There are individual parts, parts of sentences or station names that are not pronounced in the best possible way,” the spokesman said. It will collect relevant information and make corrections “as needed”. Time will tell whether passengers will get used to the new acoustics.
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
