So far, when talking about/with ChatGPT, we have limited ourselves to the PC, as well as portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. It is true that, since it is accessible from the web browser, potentially any platform that integrates this application can be an open door to the OpenAI chatbot, but since its interface has been designed with this specific type of use in mind, extend it to other contexts it may not be as comfortable or as practical as many would like.
However, this is about to change, in a first movement that surely will soon be replicated, both in its own sector and in others. And it is that, as we can read in an official statement from the company, Mercedes-Benz is going to integrate ChatGPT in its vehicles. For now, the company is going to start a test program in the United States that will have a scope of around 900,000 vehicles. Participation in the program, of course, will be voluntary, and those interested will have to apply to join it.
For ChatGPT integration, Mercedes-Benz will combine it with its own voice assistant, Hey Mercedes, within the MBUX system, so that the interactions with the chatbot will be through the voice interface of the cars. In this regard, the brand confirms that Hey Mercedes will maintain all its current functions, so that the presence of ChatGPT will be complementary to what its vehicles already offer today.
As we can read in the statement, it does not seem that limitations will be established regarding the functions of ChatGPT, that is, that we can, through MBUX, carry out the same queries and maintain the same conversations that the service already offers us in its current format. Of course, they also focus on an aspect as important as privacy, by stating that it will be them, and not OpenAI, who will carry out the integral management of the data.
Undoubtedly, we are faced with a very interesting movement, and that sooner or later it had to take place. Whether it’s ChatGPT, Bing, Bard or any other solution to come, the leap from current interfaces to new environments is the most natural way to grow the reach of these services. Today we are talking about Mercedes-Benz, but it may not take us too long to hear about similar experiences from other manufacturers, and also about the arrival of chatbots on other types of devices… of any type.
And on a more personal level, surely more than one person will understand that I feel a certain emotion with this news since, like practically any person who was a child/adolescent in the 80s, I have been dreaming ever since of being able to have witty conversations with the car. Probably, however much ChatGPT evolves, it will never get to have as great a conversation as KITT’s, but hey, this brings us closer to that childhood dream, right?
