ChatGPT May Not Yet Make Your Car Smarter

German car manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) has announced the integration of the renowned ChatGPT into its vehicles. This AI chatbot will be available across Volkswagen's entire range of vehicle models, including electric cars. The feature will be rolled out in the European market and is also being considered for the US market.

However, Volkswagen is not the first company to do so. In June 2023, Mercedes-Benz incorporated this controversial conversational AI into its MBUX infotainment system. Approximately 900,000 US car owners had the option to participate in the testing program, but most people felt that the integration was not well-executed and lacked practicality.

Users pointed out that they did not understand why they had to say "Hey, Mercedes" when there were dedicated air conditioning and radio buttons in the car. However, this platform is still in its early stages, as it has only been around for six months.

General Motors (which has an underperforming autonomous driving subsidiary, Cruise) announced last March that it is developing a virtual personal assistant based on the ChatGPT backend AI model.

Luxury car manufacturer DS, based in France, is also proud to be the first European automaker to integrate ChatGPT into its infotainment system. This technology will be available for free for six months starting from October 19, 2023 (limited to 20,000 participants as a pilot program). Future pricing plans have not been disclosed.

About Privacy Concerns

Concerns about privacy arise when integrating ChatGPT into cars. Although Mercedes-Benz has expressed a high level of concern for user data and publicly stated its focus on privacy, it retains and uses your interactions with GPT. The company's official blog states, "Voice command data collected is stored in the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Cloud, where the data is anonymized and analyzed."

The statement further indicates that Mercedes developers can see your conversations to better develop voice control features in the future. Insights from the beta version will be used to launch large-scale language models in more markets and languages.

ChatGPT Technology

Generative AI is fascinating, but its applications in cars are still unclear. Cars are a functionally limited environment - used for driving, listening to music, and getting to our destinations. In some cases, a voice interface is the simplest way to change a song or get directions.

ChatGPT can summarize and generate more existing content, write poetry, or plagiarize poetry. But do these things happen frequently when you are driving or in the car? The core issue with this technology remains, as it does not provide tangible benefits to users, and indeed, no drivers have requested this AI feature.

More questions arise, such as what happens to all your chats and interactions with the AI bot if you sell the car? Do you need a new "license"? What if the new owner wants to follow up with questions based on previous conversations?

Kai Gruenitz, a board member of the Volkswagen Brand Technology Development, stated that when it comes to the ChatGPT plugin, "I think what our customers are really looking for is a seamless, intuitive use of their car."

This technology has sometimes been referred to as "revolutionary" since its release. Automakers are excited about integrating popular technology, but a year ago, they were fully focused on the metaverse. Before that, it was about achieving autonomous driving, which led to some serious accidents.

Slowing down and navigating the field of technology based on user needs would now be a wiser choice.