Nuance Provides Speech Technology for Ford Sync™ System

BURLINGTON, Mass., January 30, 2007 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: NUAN) today announced that the Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) has utilized an array of Nuance speech solutions for its new in-car digital system. This new factory-installed, in-car communications and entertainment system, dubbed Sync, is designed to change the way consumers use digital media portable music players and mobile phones in their vehicles.

This Ford-exclusive technology, based on Microsoft Auto software, includes Nuance’s speech recognition and speech synthesis technologies that provide consumers with the ability to bring into their vehicle nearly any mobile phone or digital media player and operate it using voice commands, or the vehicle’s steering wheel or radio controls. Sync seamlessly integrates the vehicle with the popular portable electronic devices of today and is upgradeable to support the devices and services of tomorrow.

Features of the new Sync system based on Nuance speech solutions include:

• Voice-activated, hands-free calling: Drivers can simply press the “Push to Talk” button on the steering wheel, and then say the name of the person to call. Sync will automatically connect with the names in the mobile phone’s contact list.
  
  
• Audible text messages: With Nuance speech synthesis, Sync will convert text messages from a phone to audio and read them out loud. The system is sophisticated enough to translate commonly used text messaging expressions such as “LOL”.
  
  
• Voice-activated music: Drivers can browse hands-free the music collection on a digital media player or USB drive by genre, album, artist and song title using simple voice commands, such as “Play Genre Rock,” “Play U2,” or “Play Playlist Acoustic.”
  
  
• Instant voice recognition: The advanced Nuance speech recognition in Sync lets a driver speak simple commands that are automatically understood by the system, without any training.
  
  
• Multilingual intelligence: Sync is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

“Nuance has a long history of working with Ford to develop innovative, in-vehicle voice control systems,” said Steve Chambers, president, Speech Division, at Nuance. “Now with the advanced speech technology in Sync, Ford is able to offer drivers newfound convenience, safety and user experience for enjoying the myriad in-car communications and entertainment options. With Sync, powered by Nuance Automotive, Ford drivers should never have to take their eyes off the road to dial their phone, receive text messages or select songs from their iPod, Zune or other MP3 player.”

Sync will debut this calendar year on the 2008 Ford Focus, Fusion, Five Hundred, Edge, Freestyle, Explorer and Sport Trac; Mercury Milan, Montego and Mountaineer; and Lincoln MKX and MKZ. The technology is expected to be available on all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in the near future. For more information and a demonstration of Sync, please visit http://www.syncmyride.com/.

About Nuance Automotive

As a leading supplier of speech components to automotive OEMs and vendors, Nuance Communications offers an integrated suite of technologies and services to enable voice-activated dialing, voice destination entry for navigation systems, vehicle command and control, and in-vehicle entertainment systems. The company’s speech recognition and text-to-speech software deliver state-of-the-art performance and a rich set of features and tools tailored for the highly demanding automotive environment.

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance (Nasdaq: NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.