An improved dynamic time warping (DTW) speech recognition method is proposed. An electronic control unit of vehicular speech recognition system is developed bas ed on chip microcontroller SPCE061A. The corresponding control software is progr ammed and the speech recognition tests are carried out under the different noise conditions within an experimental vehicle. The test results show that the speec h recognition ratio reduces with the increase of the vehicle interior noise leve l and the speech length. The average recognition ratio is 90% for two Chinese characters speech and 85% for four Chinese characters speech when the vehicle is u nder the idle running condition and the interior noise is less than 50dB(A). A nd the average recognition ratio is 85% for two Chinese characters speech and 80 % for four Chinese Characters speech when the vehicle is under the fixation and halfthrottle running condition and the interior noise level range is from 60 t o 70dB(A). The speech recognition results are satisfactory.