Google has provided the technological platform for launching an AI-powered assistant for Volkswagen car owners within a smartphone app. For the tech giant, this project is an opportunity to expand its business by attracting corporate clients to its AI cloud platform, according to Reuters.
Users can ask the AI assistant questions related to car maintenance, such as "How do I change a flat tire?" or point their phone's camera at the dashboard to receive relevant information. The assistant is based on Google’s large language model, Gemini, which understands natural language queries and provides mostly accurate responses. Volkswagen has supplemented Gemini with additional data, including car manuals and YouTube videos on vehicle maintenance.
According to Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, the project required overcoming several technical challenges due to the multimodal nature of the model's operation. “At first glance, the task seems simple, but it is technically very complex. Most people think we just created a speech-to-text system that then searches for instructions. That’s not the case,” Kurian explained. The AI assistant is free and available to 120,000 owners of Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport vehicles. It will be rolled out to other models, starting with the 2020 lineup, by early next year.
The cloud computing segment is a growing area for Google — last year, it accounted for $33 billion out of the company’s total revenue of $307 billion. AI-based solutions have already generated billions in revenue for Google this year, though more precise figures have not been disclosed. Volkswagen has also declined to provide further details about the AI assistant.
