VW takes a leaf from the Knight Rider playbook by bringing ChatGPT to cars
In the 1980s cult series Knight Rider, Michael Knight spoke to his iconic talking car KITT as if it was a human being. Volkswagen is bringing the fantasy to life with plans for ChatGPT revealed at CES in Las Vegas.
A smart chatbot, with the help of technology partner Cerence, will be integrated into VW’s existing voice assistant IDA.
Specifically, the car’s navigation system will be linked to ChatGPT, allowing voice assistance far beyond current voice control of specific car functions or selecting the best route to travel. The driver will be able to hear Ida give answers to common questions such as what restaurants are nearby?, Where can I buy a smartphone charger?, and what is the nearest pharmacy?
While those features sound like the norm for systems like Car Play and Google Assistant, Ida will differentiate itself with a conversational range beyond the state of the car and the best route to take.
The physical demonstration on stage at CES showed that in practice, voice conversations with Ida were still fairly stiff. However, VW and Cerence maintain that the customer experience will improve quickly and that today’s limited voice assistant will eventually transform into a human-like travel companion that has an answer to just about every question.
The new combination will be available from the second quarter on the ID.7, ID.4, ID.5, ID.3 models, and the new Tiguan, Passat and Golf.
Other automakers are also working on integrating smart chatbots into their cars, but VW claims to be the first to do so on a mass scale. The lack of personality is proof we’re a long way off KITT-level banter.
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