General Motors will add a Google Gemini-powered AI chat assistant to its cars, trucks and SUVs starting next year, the US automaker said Wednesday during an event in New York.
The Google Gemini unveiling is one of several technology-focused announcements made at the automaker’s GM Forward event, and it will be one of the first to make its way into the hands of consumers. Others, including an overhaul of the electrical architecture and computing platform and an automated driving feature that lets drivers keep their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, won’t come to GM brands until 2028.
GM is the latest automaker to rely on artificial intelligence-based genetic assistants that promise to respond to drivers’ requests in a more natural way. Stellantis is working with French AI company Mistral, Mercedes is integrating ChatGPT, and Tesla has brought xAI’s Grok to its vehicles.
GM’s merger with Gemini is the next logical step for the auto industry. Vehicles made by GM’s Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC brands already have “Google built in,” an operating system that gives drivers access to Google Assistant, Google Maps and other apps directly from the car’s infotainment screen. In 2023, Google began using Google Cloud’s Dialogflow chatbot to handle non-emergency OnStar functions, including common driver queries such as routing and navigation assistance.
GM’s Gemini-powered AI assistant will have similar levels of capability — it’ll just perform better, according to Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services.
“One of the challenges with current voice assistants is that if you’ve used them, you’ve probably also been frustrated by them because they’re trained on certain code words, or they don’t understand tones very well, or if you don’t say it right, you don’t get the right response,” Richardson told TechCrunch. “What’s great about big language models is that they don’t seem to be affected by it. They have a context about previous conversations that they can bring up. They’re flexible in how you talk to them … so overall you get a better, more natural experience.”
This can make writing and sending messages, planning routes with extra stops (like a charging station or a favorite coffee shop), or even preparing for a meeting on the go a more painless experience. The assistant will also have access to the web to be able to answer some questions like, “What’s the story of this bridge I’m driving?”
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Gemini Assistant will be available through the Play Store as an over-the-air upgrade to OnStar-equipped vehicles model year 2015 and up.
GM’s new voice assistant is a step toward the automaker’s goal of developing its own custom artificial intelligence that connects to your vehicle’s systems through OnStar, GM’s in-car concierge. The way GM executives described the technology at the New York event, it looks like a combination of a medical gown and an AI locket, but for your car.
The assistant promises to access vehicle data to provide maintenance alerts and route suggestions, explain car functions such as one-pedal driving, and turn on the heating or air conditioning before you get into the vehicle.
“The idea here is to get it [an existing] big language model, and you train it and refine it in a specific domain,” Richardson said. “We’ll take a basic model and train it to the vehicle’s specifications, distill it down, and run it on the vehicle.”
While GM has a close relationship with Google and will already implement Gemini in some vehicles, Richardson said GM plans to test several key models from other AI companies, such as OpenAI, Anthropic and others.
Richardson said drivers will be able to control what information the assistant can access and use, and it can learn from your habits to offer personalized recommendations. GM’s emphasis on user controls is notable given the company’s recent controversy over the sale of customer driving and geolocation data to insurance brokers.
Richardson said any data GM receives from drivers goes directly to product improvement and will not be sold to generate additional revenue for the automaker. Over the past nearly two years, GM has built a new data team — including Christina Montgomery, who spent 30 years as IBM’s head of privacy and trust — to put in place standard processes and data governance technology.
“Everything we’re going to do will be driven by the customer’s consent, so you can always choose to opt in or out,” he said. “Our view is that data and privacy should be embedded in everything we do.”
This article has been updated with comments from Dave Richardson.
