On Monday, Volkswagen GA (VOWG) announced plans to integrate ChatGPT into the voice assistant of its cars by the middle of the year.
The German automaker presented its first ChatGPT-equipped vehicles at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) trade fair. The compact segment cars will be available in North America and Europe in the second quarter of this year.
OpenAI ushered in the generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) revolution when it released the Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) in November 2022. Major companies worldwide have since raced to integrate the solution into their businesses or develop their own version.
Cerence’s executives, who assisted Volkswagen in the integration, said GenAI will make driving more convenient and safer. For example, the AI virtual assistant (VA) will automatically activate the car’s heater if the driver says they are cold.
Moreover, drivers can adjust their vehicles’ functionalities completely hands-free. Using only speech, the user can adjust any seat without having to do so manually.
ChatGPT can also automatically book movie tickets or set restaurant reservations with simple prompts from the driver. With the VA recognizing and responding to various demands, the user can focus on driving even while multitasking.
Investors welcomed the CES presentation, with Volkswagen’s stock closing 1.84% higher on January 08. The company’s shares have gained 2.83% so far in 2024.
Volkswagen Sees ChatGPT as the Future of Cars
Volkswagen claimed it was the first volume carmaker to make ChatGPT a standard vehicle feature.
However, it added that it expects competitors to follow suit in the latter half of the year or early next year.
General Motors (GM) revealed that it was developing a GenAI virtual personal assistant (VPA) based on ChatGPT’s large language model (LLM) in March. Mercedes-Benz (MBGn), meanwhile, tested a program last June that enabled its MBUX system to download and deploy OpenAI’s flagship solution.
Still, Volkswagen stressed that being the first to mass deploy the technology grants it a critical competitive advantage. It expects to gather more data and information to configure ChatGPT into the perfect VA for drivers.
