KT148A Voice Prompt Chip Makes Automatic Car Wash Machines Smarter!

Car maintenance is an essential part of every car owner's daily life, and car washing — as a basic maintenance step — is increasingly valued for its convenience and level of automation. In this context, fully automatic car wash machines have emerged and become widely used in the car care industry.

Because the car wash process is fully automated, many first-time users may not know how to operate it. Therefore, many manufacturers of automatic car wash machines incorporate voice prompts into their product designs. When users operate the machine, voice prompts can guide them through the process and mode selection, for example:

• Starting clean water rinse;
• Starting foam cleaning mode;
• Disinfection mode;
• Cleaning complete — wish you a pleasant driving experience!

This makes the machine more user-friendly and convenient to operate.

How Voice Prompts are Achieved

To achieve voice prompt functionality, an automatic car wash machine needs a voice chip. The KT148A voice chip is a 32-bit DSP-based, 5 MHz internal oscillator chip with PLL up to 120 MHz. It offers low cost, low power consumption, and high performance.

Key Features of KT148A:

• Standby current less than 25 µA, with an ultra-low power mode of 1.5 µA;
• Supports 16-bit mono PWM output and can directly drive an 8 Ω / 0.5 W speaker — industrial-grade voice performance;
• Stores up to 420 seconds or 224 segments of audio (expandable for greater needs);
• Users can update the internal voice content via MCU or a dedicated programmer;
• Provides hardware I²C and UART interfaces, allowing for various custom functions;
• Supports multiple reprogramming, eliminating concerns about incomplete testing or batch issues.

Benefits of Integrating KT148A

By integrating a KT148A voice chip, automatic car wash machines can:

• Provide real-time voice guidance and convenient operation;
• Play advertisements to enhance brand awareness;
• Enable realistic human voice prompts for brand promotion, voice navigation, and fault notifications;

This makes the machine more intelligent and user-friendly.