VW is upping its voice assistant’s game by including ChatGPT tech on a host of current and upcoming electric and ICE-powered cars. The automaker will showcase its new digital helper at CES in Las Vegas this week, and begin fitting it to production cars from the second quarter of 2024 in Europe. North American availability is still to be confirmed, VW saying only for now that it’s “being considered” for U.S. cars.
The tech is called Cerence Chat Pro and has been developed with VW’s technology partner, Cerence Inc. The automaker says it will be the first volume brand to apply ChatGPT as standard to cars and will roll it out on the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7, new Passat, European Tiguan, and the upcoming facelifted Mk8.5 Golf, pictures of which VW released ahead of a full reveal later this month to help promote the CES announcement
VW says having ChatGPT onboard makes the voice assistant vastly more sophisticated than before, allowing it not only to control the media system but also adjust the climate control and answer general knowledge questions. That last one can “enrich conversations,” VW claims, or it might just be handy for settling arguments between squabbling kids when you’re driving solo and aren’t able to search up an answer on your phone to decide once and for all who’s right and who’s wrong.
Related: Chevy Dealers’ ChatGPT Bots Recommend Teslas, BMWs, Fords, Toyotas And Rivians
The driver doesn’t need to do anything differently to access this new gizmo and can activate the voice assistant by saying “Hello IDA” or by pressing a button on the steering wheel. VW is at pains to point out that Chat GPT doesn’t gain any access to vehicle data and assures us that questions and answers are deleted immediately to ensure the highest possible level of data protection.
How would you feel about having this kind of AI in your car? Do you think it would be useful, is it just a gimmick or a scary intrusion on your private sanctuary? Leave a comment and let us know.
