Since at least March 2023, General Motors, which manufactures Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC cars and trucks, has reportedly been working on a Microsoft Azure-hosted virtual assistant that leverages the AI models behind ChatGPT. Such an AI assistant could go beyond the simple voice commands available in today’s cars by, for example, informing drivers how to change a flat tire (including by playing an instructional video on the car’s display) or by explaining to drivers the meaning of a diagnostic light on the car’s dashboard, telling them whether they should pull over and maybe even make them an appointment at a local repair shop.

We haven’t heard anything about GM’s project since.

In January 2024, Volkswagen unveiled its first vehicles that integrate ChatGPT into its in-car voice assistant, which will supposedly be able to control the infotainment, navigation, and air conditioning, as well as answer general knowledge questions. The company promises that “this can be helpful on many levels during a car journey: Enriching conversations, clearing up questions, interacting in intuitive language, receiving vehicle-specific information, and much more – purely hands-free." The feature is set to start rolling out “in many production vehicles” in Q2 2024, starting in Europe.

I doubt Volkswagen will issue an OTA update to cars already on the road, meaning that most car owners won’t get this functionality for years. Mercedes, BMW, and Hyundai have also promised to integrate large language models to bolster their in-car voice assistants, but not before 2025.

Carmakers moving slowly does not surprise me. Apple and Google, however, haven’t even bothered to talk about updating Carplay and Android Auto with LLMs.

As a result, people are getting into their cars, launching ChatGPT with voice on their phones, and just talking. They’re using the chatbot as a sounding board to brainstorm. They’re entertaining their kids by letting them ask endless questions. They’re accessing a large chunk of humanity’s knowledge by just talking while driving.

People are doing this behind the wheel because the car is the perfect location for voice input. Billions of car trips occur solo. In most parts of the world, the average occupancy of cars is around 1.5 passengers. Even before voice chatbots and voice assistants, seeing people with their mouth open while driving is common. They’re either talking to themselves, singing to themselves, or talking to someone on a call.

The car is thus a great opportunity for voice tech to shift into gear. Not only is talking alone while driving socially accepted, but the car is an enclosed space. A quiet background reduces conversation misunderstandings with everyone, including voice assistants.