Back in July 2017 we launched an Alexa skill to allow you to check your vehicle tax and MOT status. Since then it’s been used by more than 14,000 of our customers.
When we updated the skill in March this year, the most common question asked was “when is the skill going to be available on Google Assistant?” Well, the answer is….now!
How Google Assistant can help you
At DVLA we want the millions of citizens and organisations that deal with us every day to be able to access our services in the quickest and easiest way possible. To give you an idea of the size and scale of our customer interactions, in the last financial year we completed more than 1 billion transactions. Our Contact Centre also handles more than 28 million calls a year.
Being an early adopter of voice skills means we’ve been able to provide a new channel for our customers. This will help raise awareness of a vehicle's status so it gets taxed and on the road as simply, safely and efficiently as possible. This information, which is also available on gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax, helps you check the date your vehicle tax is due, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Why being on Google Assistant helps us
Google Home was only launched in the UK in April 2017. Since then, the latest YouGov Smart Speaker report shows that the devices already account for 16% of the smart speaker market in the UK. The report also highlights the number of Brits owning a smart speaker device doubled between 2017 and 2018. As well as being used via a Google Home speaker it’s already available on over 500 million devices worldwide; including Android phones and tablets, iOS devices, more than 40 brands of vehicles and on devices from over 500 manufacturers.
We’re always looking to test new and innovative ways of providing digital services
This is our first trial at building actions for Google Assistant, it will allow us to see how speech recognition and natural language understanding compares between the two major voice platforms. So, what are you waiting for? The link in the actions directory is here...
Just ask for DVLA and give it a go. It’s available on all devices that support Google Assistant.
Your feedback
I’d be delighted to get your feedback to help us improve.
In the meantime if you’d like to work on interesting technical challenges on services that touch over 90% of the UK adult population?
You can also:
- keep an eye on our @DVLA_careersTwitter account for job adverts
- subscribeto our email alerts
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5 comments
Comment by Graham Bean posted on
Didn't work for my current vehicle registration. Tried 3 -4 times. Worked for my previous car I owned in the 1960's
Comment by Barry Farley posted on
Thank you for this opportunity to become, in part, technical. I am looking forward to learning a bit more about technology, and discovering how long
it may take before I end up totally confused.
Comment by Renan Gouveia posted on
Congratulations, I did the test in google assistant I gave 5 stars!
Comment by Sidney Derek Beeton posted on
Very useful asset even though most "law abiding" motorists would have a good record of the expiry/renewal date of their road Tax; MOT & Insurance. What I would like to see is a real concerted effort to identify the many motorists who have no tax, MOT or insurance....give every member of the Police the power & equipment to check particulars & when Offenders are caught their vehicles are crushed & if they owe money on them the "lenders" are left to pursue the Offenders for their money. This will then put a real responsibility on the HP Coy's to verify the motoring laws are complied with
Comment by William Loneskie posted on
Not happy with this at all. How secure will this service be? Is it necessary? Is it not a waste of scarce resources? The DVLA should not be dependent on an American company. The tax disc should be brought back.