Volkswagen is also venturing into generative AI

There has been a lot of talk about artificial intelligence since the launch of the ChatGPT application in November 2022, which is capable of understanding and generating text or images in an automated way, and the automotive industry is not immune to this trend. These days, it’s Volkswagen’s turn to venture into this field.

The German group has announced the creation of an internal but relatively independent division called AI Lab, whose mandate will be to travel the world in search of the best AI application ideas for automobiles, and either develop these ideas itself or collaborate with other companies willing to do so.

At Volkswagen, AI is being applied in various ways in its vehicles. Obviously, the most prominent is the development of an advanced voice interface, something that will be implemented starting in 2025 in Europe on the Golf, for example. Volkswagen has decided to use ChatGPT as a voice assistant on board its small cars, and it has just been announced that Amazon’s Alexa voice command will soon be added to the multimedia system of its future vehicles.

It goes beyond that as well. Volkswagen believes that AI designed for automobiles could help prevent mechanical breakdowns by considering various factors to perform “preventive maintenance”, thus saving its customers valuable money. An AI adapted to the transportation system could also facilitate city navigation, for example by helping the driver anticipate the behavior of other vehicles, the traffic light patterns, and so on.

Finally, Volkswagen foresees that AI will make it easier to drive its electric vehicles by helping the driver naturally integrate moments and places for recharging the battery into their journeys.

Only time will tell what will come of this in the coming years. It cannot be said that Volkswagen has been particularly successful in software development in recent years, but the clear intention behind the creation of its AI Lab is to correct this situation.

The text “Volkswagen se lance à son tour dans l’IA générative” comes from “L’annuel de l’automobile – Actualité automobile.”