Quick, when you think of features you want in your next car, what is it you want most? Better handling, more efficiency, sumptuous comfort, great acceleration, seamless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto integration? Of course not, that’s all bullshit, isn’t it? What you want is to be able, with a simple spoken command, to demand your car write a fully-fleshed out Family Guy spec script using the power of AI! Right? Isn’t that what you want? Or to hear answers to questions and know that those answers might actually not be right? That seems to be what Volkswagen thinks people want, because I’m not sure why anyone would want ChatGPT integration in their cars, which is what VW is premiering at CES later this month.
Maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe there are twos or more people who find that having ChatGPT access on their phones and laptops isn’t enough, and they need it integrated into their cars as well. I mean, VW’s implementation is voice-activated, which is something. Here, this is how VW’s press release describes it:
Wolfsburg—At CES 2024, the world’s leading electronics trade fair from January 9 to 12, Volkswagen will present the first vehicles in which the artificial-intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT is integrated into its IDA voice assistant. In the future, customers will have seamless access to the constantly growing artificial intelligence database in all Volkswagen models equipped with the IDA voice assistant and have researched content read out to them while driving. Cerence Chat Pro from technology partner Cerence Inc. is the foundation of the new function, which offers a uniquely intelligent, automotive-grade
ChatGPT integration. Volkswagen is the first volume manufacturer that will offer Chat GPT as a standard feature from the second quarter of 2024 in many production vehicles. The feature is being considered for the United States.
The ChatGPT integration will be available on ID.7, ID.4, ID.5, ID.3, the all-new Tiguan, the all-new Passat, and the new Golf. Since just what the hell one would want to do with car-integrated ChatGPT is still somewhat lost on me, I decided to ask ChatGPT:
Huh. Okay, those are not a bad set of reasons, except, of course, like all things from ChatGPT, there’s no way to confirm if any of them are, you know, true. Still, in this case, ChatGPT got lucky, as a number of those reasons are very close to what VW describes in the press release:
For example, the IDA voice assistant can be used, for example, to control the infotainment, navigation and air conditioning, or to answer general knowledge questions. In the future, AI will provide additional information in response to questions that go beyond this as part of its continuously expanding capabilities. This can be helpful on many levels during a car journey: Enriching conversations, clearing up questions, interacting in intuitive language, receiving vehicle-specific information, and much more—purely hands-free.
A lot of this sounds like a combination of current voice command sort of stuff along with, it seems, a way to talk to your car if you’re lonely and bored on a drive. Or, “enriching” you conversations with your MeatGPT-enabled human friends. I bet that’s going to be great, and not just something you play with a few times in the first three months you own the car and then forget about.
[Ed Note: Jason has strong feelings about ChatGPT, though when I read this, I just think VW is adding an intelligent “assistant” to its cars. Doesn’t seem like a terrible thing, but how it’s executed will be key. -DT].
When we first saw this press release, a lot of my colleagues were tempted to make Herbie the Love Bug references, something that I think would have been woefully misguided. You see, Herbie is inherently and distinctly non-verbal, where ChatGPT is completely verbal. Herbie was more akin to a highly intelligent and emotional animal with an iron will than a human. A better analogy would be KITT, the very loquacious Trans Am from Knight Rider, but KITT wasn’t a VW, at least not openly.
Regardless of how or why VW decided to do this, the good news is they at least seem to be taking privacy seriously:
ChatGPT does not gain any access to vehicle data; questions and answers are deleted immediately to ensure the highest possible level of data protection. This is facilitated by Cerence Chat Pro, which leverages a multitude of sources, including ChatGPT, to enable IDA to provide relevant responses to nearly every query imaginable.
It’s good that questions and answers asked of the ChatGPT are deleted immediately; anything that you wouldn’t absolutely want deleted immediately is probably a boring question or whatever, anyway.
I’m still not convinced that anyone was really clamoring for a ChatGPT-enabled car, and all of this does feel like a shameless bit of hopping on whatever dumb tech bandwagon is currently being talked about. I was going to say it’s not hurting anyone, but the truth is ChatGPT will tell you things that aren’t true, with full, unearned confidence. It lies. I’m not sure I need something else in my car that lies.
Software-defined vehicles make my hardware go soft.
I have something in my car that lies already: me, when I suck and I should’ve done better. It was, uh, cold tires or roasted brakes or whatever. Definitely not my rusty lack of talent.
This feature is already installed on every car with a rollcage. We do not need to add a heavy and cumbersome computer system to get a stream of confident BS.
I just want a GTI with that paint job to be offered as a factory option.
Another fine product of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation…
Just what I need.
Wife: Car, please offer my husband a critique of his driving.
Car: He is a complete moron who corners too quickly, drives too fast, and attracts potholes in a fashion similar to the manner in which fecal material attracts noxious insects.
(OK, not really. My wife generally puts up with my driving pretty well. But still…..)
I’m not buying a VW until they come out with J.A.R.V.I.S. fully integrated.
The kicker here though would be if VW brass first asked chatGPT whether they should add it to cars, and why. I find the overlap between the press release and answers you got highly sus. It would also mean however that VW brass is dimmer than chatGpt which I find 100% credible though.
Ah, voice-activated ChatGPT. For those times when you want the uncertainty of so-called AI combined with the flakiness of voice recognition. WCPGW?
Got it in one.
It’s Alexa on Steroids.
The Germans have had a hard on for voice control for decades now. This is just next step. I don’t think it’s a bad thing per se. Just turn it off if you don’t want it.
“No, thanks.”
Signed, Hugh Mann.
The idea of including an AI assistant in a car seems defeated by the immediate deletion of anything asked. Any of the voice assistants with internet access can look up an address or whatever. If you’re incorporating AI, I would think you’d want it to learn from you and make your tasks easier.
Which means, like many things labeled “AI integration,” this does not appear to be that. It’s a connection to a version of ChatGPT that won’t be allowed to change and learn (which, since it’s probably answering from a central hub, rather than a massive hard drive in the car, is good because bad actors could absolutely wreak havoc on other people by intentionally training it to do unexpected things).
My Samsung washer and dryer have even more egregious misuse of the term “AI,” so don’t think this is new. It’s a buzzword. Samsung decided that they’d use “AI” to choose the proper dryer settings for the load you just washed. All it does is match the washer preset you choose to the matching dryer setting. It’s wireless communication, not AI.
I hate the whole “AI” thing so much. It’s not intelligent.
Good grief. Shades of Alexander Graham Bell (whose work with telephones was ostensibly aimed at “helping” deaf people learn speech and was ultimately detrimental to the deaf community. Needless to say, Bell’s name is mud with a lot of people.) The sheer proliferation of voice-command technology in automobiles has not been a boon at all for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and/or have speech issues. And to add insult to injury, all that just adds to cost so people are paying extra for absolutely useless technology in their cars. Bah humbug.
I think the worst is companies like Tesla moving everything to the touchscreen and going “it’s okay just use voice commands!” Some people can’t do that!
These rarely understand my voice!
I mean…I loathe when it’s the only way to do something, but (for example) the Android Auto aftermarket head unit I installed in my 2012 Prius v will let me type in an address while stationary, but if the car is moving, I can only tap recently-used addresses, or else speak the address aloud.
To me, that seems like a fair compromise of safety and usability.
I’ve already used “OK Google” while driving to check the hours of a store. Assuming ChatGPT works similarly…I don’t see it as a bad thing as much as a “this is far, far down the list of things I’m looking for in a car.”
So what happens when you say, “Hey VW, what was that whole DieselGate scandal about?”
Instant CEL.*
*Assuming it’s not already illuminated. In that case, the car bricks itself.
Gosh, that one seems mild. I thought of another chatbot-gone-haywire when I read about this and went, uhh, Volkswagen has enough problems with that association: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/05/coca-cola-makeithappy-gakwer-mein-coke-hitler
I had never heard of that scandal. Now I am happily creating my favorite cars in ASCII graphics using ChatGPT. (But no Nazi slogans, even on the German cars)
Should’ve named it the Golf Gpt
Wife: “I want a divorce! My husband has been cheating on me!”
Lawyer: “Cheating with whom?”
Wife: “ His car!”
VW hasn’t been a serious company in close to 20 years. This just underlines it again.
Yup, this is really stupid and not needed…it’s a CAR
Voice-controlled driving with IDA:
Driver: Turn
IDA: You’re the driver, it’s always your turn.
Driver: No, TURN!
IDA: OK, continuing straight.
Driver: BRAKE!
IDA: This is a Volkswagen, breaking is automatic.
Breaking is obligatory.
I wonder……how many languages does the VW version of Siri speak? understand? If you had a guy who spoke English driving, and then a German got in, would the car still understand him/her?
What about Hindi vs Farsi? Or French vs Russian?
A true “How do you do, fellow kids” moment.
So is the one where the ChatGPT goes on a racist rant going to be the Nuremburg Edition?
Is this just another case of the term “AI” being thrown around, like every other commercial currently does, when the actual product will just be VW’s version of Siri or Alexa?
I think so. Sounds like their version of Siri and Alexa using an AI company’s software package.
Given that ChatGPT and other AI services use a shocking amount of energy, I wonder how long before the trend kinda dies. It is a hit because people think it’s cheaper, after the power bills come in we might see some people dropping it.
Not soon enough. It sucks so hard.
My Figaro lies to me quite often:
Figaro
“Here, look at my fuel gauge needle, it’s below zero, you’d better fill me up!”
Me
Stop to fuel it, only find out it still has a quarter tank left.
“dumb tech bandwagen”
Eh, call me when the DumbTechBandwagen GTI comes out.