Are chatbots turning cars into chatterboxes?
More and more voice assistants are moving into cars - Alexa, Siri and the like have already changed the dialog with the vehicle. But with AI chatbots, the big chatter is already entering the next round.
"Hey, what's the weather going to be like along the route?" When Justin Forsyth gets into the prototype of the new Mini Countryman, he no longer has to press many buttons or tap menu fields. That's because the next generation of the small car will also see a new digital assistant go into series production.
"With its very own character, British accent and English humor," says Forsyth, who works as a programmer in the manufacturer's tech office in Silicon Valley - and says that he has already been reprimanded for being a late riser when he once greeted the car with "Good morning" at lunchtime. He then asks about the tire pressure, says how warm he would like the interior to be and asks for his favorite music.
The assistant is based on Amazon's Alexa software, but has a car twist and speaks its own dialect, explains Forsyth. This marks the beginning of a new language between man and machine. The car manufacturers want to go even further.
The topics should extend beyond the car
Since AI chatbots such as ChatGPT have been on everyone's lips, they have also been experimenting with so-called large language models here in Silicon Valley and in their development centers around the world. The aim is to make dialogs more and more natural, with topics extending beyond the car. Chatbots in the car should read out children's fairy tales, summarize the news situation or give travel tips that go far beyond simply naming points of interest such as sights.
"ChatGPT in the car will take the user experience holistically to a new level," believes Timo Littke from strategy consultant Berylls. This already starts with the dramatically improved speech recognition and the voice output, which will become more comprehensible and individualized. The range of topics and information will also increase, as all vehicle information, knowledge from the internet and data from connected user accounts such as your own email inbox or calendar will be available, says Littke.
Assistants are becoming more individual
The assistants would also become more individual because brands could introduce their own characteristics via AI chatbots. In addition, the previous course of the conversation can often be taken into account in the dialog, even far into the past. Littke also hopes that this will improve safety: "Easier and more intuitive use will reduce distraction and drivers will be able to concentrate better on the traffic."
Although the car manufacturers are adopting the expertise of the large Internet companies, they want to implement it in such a way that drivers do not have to make any major adjustments. And above all, they attach great importance to establishing boundaries: "We retain sovereignty over the data and take responsibility for its protection," says BMW developer Forsyth, for example.
The competition is also keen to establish that they work with shielded cloud environments. Up to now, these have mainly been theoretical considerations or tests behind closed doors, but manufacturers are now increasingly venturing out onto the road with AI chatbots. Mercedes started a trial run back in the summer and integrated ChatGPT into its MBUX infotainment system.
Natural dialogs and follow-up questions
The beta program extends existing Hey Mercedes functions such as navigation input or weather queries with the capabilities of ChatGPT. In this way, we want to make conversations with natural dialogs and follow-up questions possible," explains Mercedes Head of Development Markus Schäfer.
While Mercedes has limited itself to the USA, Citroen offshoot DS has been offering a comparable system in Germany since the fall. Initially, 20,000 customers in half a dozen European countries can register for free.
Among other things, the system will provide personalized bedtime stories for children, the most important traffic rules for the countries along the route or snack ideas for the next stop. Or you can ask yourself quiz questions or discuss the national team's chances in the 2024 European Championship with the car.
AI impresses with its ability to interact
The ability to interact is one of the outstanding achievements of artificial intelligence in recent years, according to DS parent company Stellantis. This is why the French company leaves little doubt that the trial run will soon go into regular operation.
Other manufacturers can hardly escape the fascination of AI chatbots: If you believe the rumors from the tech scene, the next market entry among the chatterboxes is already imminent. Now that VW is using the same software for its voice control as Mercedes, the takeover of the AI chatbot is only a matter of time.
And it won't stop there, believes Berylls expert Timo Littke: "The high added user value will lead to high demand and drive many manufacturers to develop their own ChatGPT integrations." More natural speech and better recognition, more detailed dialogs and an ever-wider range of topics - of course, drivers and their passengers are the first to benefit from the new chat applications.
However, when such AI voice bots are used as a development tool, it also works in the opposite direction - for example with the British start-up Wayve. This uses artificial intelligence to enable people to explain to the car what they are doing and why. This is how the British want to train the autopilot and get closer to autonomous driving. They take machine learning literally: the human steers, the machine learns.
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Source: www.ntv.de
