VW integrating ChatGPT into its ‘Ida’ voice assistant

Volkswagen has announced AI as the newest co-pilot in some of the automaker’s products starting in Q2 of this year. The German brand partnered with U.S. company Cerence, which develops voice assistant technologies specifically for the automotive market. Cerence has only been around as an independent entity since 2019, but it was spun out of Nuance Communications, the now-Microsoft-owned speech recognition company behind hoary old programs like Dragon and whose speech models helped train Apple’s Siri. Last year, VW debuted a new voice assistant named Ida, able to perform some in-cabin functions when asked and answer the most general questions. Combining Cerence’s Chat Pro software with Ida give’s VW’s virtual helper access to the power of “automotive-grade” ChatGPT and “a multitude of sources,” making Ida an emcee for the growing database of AI knowledge.

VW says the first vehicles to onboard the new programming will be those on MEB and MQB Evo platforms: the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7, and the new Tiguan, Passat, and Golf. Included as standard equipment for the rollout, the first cars to to benefit will reach dealers in the second quarter. In addition to the familiar capabilities of an in-car assistant, we’re told the smarter version of Ida will be able to “answer general knowledge questions,” read researched content for occupants, express vehicle-specific information, and more.

While the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is being used to debut the power of the partnership, though, VW says “the feature is being considered for the United States.” So don’t look for it here until its earned its stars in other languages.

At one point in the VW press release, we’re told, “ChatGPT does not gain any access to vehicle data; questions and answers are deleted immediately to ensure the highest possible level of data protection.” At another point, 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.” So it sounds like if someone in the car stumps the AI, the AI anonymizes the interaction but holds onto it. Sentient overlords have to learn somehow, right?

If we can get an interesting demo, we’ll be back with a report from the show floor. This has us thinking, the Dragon text-to-speech software — part of former parent company Nuance and Microsoft, not Cerence — is now broken into a range of specialties including Dragon Legal and Dragon Law Enforcement. Having an AI that, when a driver gets pulled over, supports the interaction with best practices for the driver based on all the relevant sections of the local municipal and legal codes would be kinda cool.