Starting in the second quarter of this year, Volkswagen has revealed that AI will be the newest co-pilot in a few of its cars. The American business Cerence, which creates voice assistant technology especially for the car market, teamed with the German brand. Although Cerence has only been operating independently since 2019, it was originally formed as a spinoff of Nuance Communications, the speech recognition business that was previously owned by Microsoft and was responsible for popular old products like Dragon and the speech models that Apple used to train Siri. VW introduced Ida, a new voice assistant that can answer the most common questions and carry out various in-cabin tasks, last year.
Volkswagen claims that the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7, and the new Tiguan, Passat, and Golf will be the first cars on the MEB and MQB Evo platforms to receive the new programming. The initial vehicles to receive this benefit will be delivered to dealers in the second quarter as standard equipment for the rollout. The enhanced Ida is expected to have additional features beyond the typical in-car assistant functions. These include the ability to “answer general knowledge questions,” read occupant-specific content, convey vehicle-specific information, and more.
Though the partnership’s power is being unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, VW states that “the feature is being considered for the United States.” Therefore, wait till it has earned its stars in other languages before looking for it here.
“ChatGPT does not gain any access to vehicle data; questions and answers are deleted immediately to ensure the highest possible level of data protection,” the press release from VW states at one point. On another occasion, we’re told, “If the request cannot be answered by the Volkswagen system, it is forwarded anonymously to AI and the familiar Volkswagen voice responds.” It appears that the AI retains the information but anonymizes the exchange if someone in the car challenges it. Overlords with sentience must somehow acquire knowledge.
We will report back from the show floor if we manage to snag an intriguing demo. This got us to thinking: Dragon is a text-to-speech program that was formerly owned by Microsoft and Nuance, not Cerence. It is currently divided into other categories, such as Dragon Law Enforcement and Dragon Legal. It would be kind of amazing to have an AI that, upon a driver’s engagement with the police, provides best practices in accordance with all pertinent sections of the local municipal and legal regulations.