Dive Brief:
- Volkswagen is planning to integrate ChatGPT into its voice assistant technology within vehicles beginning in the second quarter of this year, the company said Monday.
- The integration will give drivers the ability to operate navigation, air conditioning and infotainment systems via voice control, the automaker said. ChatGPT will also answer general knowledge questions for vehicle owners.
- ChatGPT will not gain access to any vehicle data or questions and the system will immediately delete answers “to ensure the highest possible level of data protection,” Volkswagen said.
Dive Insight:
Carmakers aren’t shy about adding new digital capabilities that align with current tech trends. In the era of hybrid work, automakers introduced features to support meetings on the road by partnering with Webex, Zoom and other video conferencing platforms.
Now, automakers are turning their focus to artificial intelligence features.
Volkswagen is partnering with automobile software vendor Cerence to design a new large language model-based user experience as the foundation of the carmakers’ in-vehicle assistant, Stefan Ortmanns, CEO of Cerence, said in the announcement.
For now, ChatGPT is enhancing existing voice control capabilities, a spokesperson for Volkswagen said. Vehicle operators can tell the car they have a cold, and, in theory, ChatGPT would recommend cold medicine and provide directions to the nearest store where the vehicle owner could pick it up.
The ChatGPT capabilities will come as a standard feature in ID.7, ID.4. ID. 3 and new versions of the Tiguan, Passat and Golf Volkswagen models.
Internally, automakers are turning to generative AI to reduce administrative burdens and find information quickly.
American Honda rolled out Microsoft Copilot broadly to workers in November as part of a five-prong strategy to deploy generative AI and democratize access to data insights.
General Motors was an early adopter of Microsoft’s 365 Copilot. Workers can use the tool to ask questions and receive responses based on emails, meetings and other content within Microsoft apps. Mercedes-Benz invested more than $2.2 billion in AI reskilling for employees and began piloting ChatGPT in its manufacturing sites worldwide in July.
Volkswagen has not implemented an internal generative AI solution broadly, though different departments are experimenting with AI-powered tools to assist in daily tasks, such as generating first drafts of content and images, a spokesperson said.
