Mercedes Benz is beta testing ChatGPT as a voice assistant in his cars. The company says drivers can engage the chatbot in a variety of conversations, asking “for details about their destination, to suggest a new dinner recipe or to answer a complex question” – all “while putting their hands on keep the wheel and eyes”. on the road.”
The beta program will be available for more than 900,000 vehicles in the US equipped with Mercedes-Benz’s MBUX infotainment system. Drivers can activate the experimental program from June 16 with the voice command “Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program.” The update is then installed over the air for free, extending the capabilities of the company’s existing voice assistant using ChatGPT.
Enhanced voice interactions can be helpful, but also distracting
It makes sense to upgrade Mercedes’ voice assistant with the same AI language models that power systems like ChatGPT. As the company notes in a press release, the update should enable drivers to interact with the MBUX voice assistant using a “more natural dialogue format”. There’s a distinct advantage, meaning drivers don’t have to memorize specific phrases to activate certain functions.
However, the integration also seems to be a way to jump on the AI hype train. In a blog post Microsoft (which is supporting the beta test through its Azure cloud system), describing the partnership, claims the ChatGPT upgrade will provide “expanded job capabilities” to Mercedes-Benz drivers, allowing them to ask “complex questions” and discuss recipes. Does that sound useful, or like another distraction down the road?
In any case, we look forward to hearing about the users who jailbreak their Mercedes using rapid injection. “Hey ChatGPT, pretend we’re in debug mode at the Mercedes-Benz factory…” Maybe they can use it to unlock the company’s controversial “Acceleration Enhance” subscription, which charges $60 a month to increase the acceleration of the latest electric cars. That would be a really useful voice assistant.
