Google has announced that it has begun providing core technology for a new artificial intelligence (AI) assistant integrated into a smartphone app for Volkswagen (VW) drivers, to provide them with information and assist them with tasks.
The AI assistant, built using Google’s Gemini large language models, enables users to ask and receive answers to questions like “How do I change a flat tire?” or use their phone cameras to identify dashboard controls and receive relevant information.
This is part of Google’s broader strategy to expand its enterprise AI offerings by enabling businesses to develop practical AI applications. The assistant was developed by integrating data such as Volkswagen owner manuals and maintenance videos from YouTube into Google’s Gemini AI system, which can process and generate predictive responses from various data types, including text, images, and video.
CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian, highlighted the technical challenges behind the project, highlighting the complexity of creating a multimodal system capable of processing different data formats. “The problem looks superficially simple, but it’s technically very complex,” Kurian said, dismissing any notion that the tool was merely a basic text-to-speech function.
The AI assistant is currently available to around 120,000 owners of VW’s Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport models, with plans to expand the feature to more cars from model year 2020 and beyond by early 2025.
As companies explore practical uses for generative AI, Google is pushing for greater adoption of its AI and cloud computing tools, a segment that generated $33 billion in revenue for the company in 2023.
Despite trailing behind Amazon and Microsoft in cloud market share, AI innovations like this are expected to drive significant growth for Google Cloud, which reported billions in revenue from AI solutions this year.
