Mercedes joins AI race, integrates ChatGPT into 900,000 vehicles

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Jun 2023 15:21

The German automaker says that the new project is still in beta and is expected to be fully deployed after three months of trial.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class 2023 interior with place details provided by Google Maps. (Mercedes-Benz website)

Germany's car giant Mercedes-Benz integrated ChatGPT into 900,000 of its cars and SUVs, in a beta program launched on Friday, that will allow owners to use artificial intelligence AI as part of their driving experience.

Following the launch of Altman's ChatGPT in November 2022, it quickly was adopted by tens of millions and has rapidly advanced beyond predictions by top experts in the industry. Major global industries have acknowledged that the world is set on an irreversible path to implementing AI into daily human lives, unleashing waves of innovations across industries to try and harness the power of the growing technology.

According to the user tracking website SimilarWeb, ChatGPT currently has over 100 million users around the world and generates around 1.8 billion hits per month, a 180 percent increase since February 2023, just two months after I was introduced to the market.

Benz car owners can now say "Hey Mercedes" to activate that car's voice assistant powered through MBUX Voice Assistant.

While voice commands are already available in the company's cars, it's just limited to simple questions such as providing weather and sports updates.

On the other hand, the new AI tech will be able to offer answers to more complex questions, including destination details and also dinner recipes.

The German firm is using Microsoft's Azure OpenAI to deploy ChatGPT. This will allow drivers to take advantage of the company's "enterprise-grade security, privacy, and reliability capabilities." However, the background's operational process of the technology system will remain under Mercedes' control.

Markus Schafer, the company's Chief Technology Officer, said that customers will be "free to make their own decisions" regarding data security.

They will be informed "at all times what information is collected and for what purpose," he said, assuring that it "protects all customer data from manipulation and misuse".

The beta program will last three months, Mercedes announced, during which it will work on improving the new system according to customers' feedback.