Google is powering an AI assistant for Volkswagen’s smartphone app, utilizing its Gemini large language models to assist drivers with real-time information. The AI tool, currently available to select Volkswagen models, showcases Google’s growing presence in the enterprise AI and cloud computing market.
24 September 2024 – Alphabet’s Google is making strides in artificial intelligence (AI) by providing key capabilities for an AI-powered assistant in Volkswagen’s smartphone app. This collaboration is part of Google’s broader strategy to support enterprise AI applications. The in-app AI assistant allows Volkswagen drivers to ask questions like, “How do I change a flat tire?” or point their phone cameras at the dashboard for real-time assistance.
The AI assistant leverages Google’s Gemini large language models, designed to understand and generate human-like responses. By integrating data from Volkswagen owner manuals and YouTube videos on vehicle maintenance, the AI assistant provides predictive and relevant answers. According to Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, the project involved overcoming complex technical challenges to enable multimodal data processing, combining text, images, and video.
The AI assistant is currently available for around 120,000 owners of Volkswagen’s Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport models and is expected to expand to other vehicles from model year 2020 and beyond by early 2025.
As corporate adoption of generative AI grows, it could reshape the competitive landscape of the cloud computing market, where Google ranks third behind Amazon and Microsoft. Google’s cloud business generated $33 billion of the company’s total $307 billion revenue in 2023, with AI-driven solutions contributing significantly to revenue growth, although exact figures were not disclosed.
Volkswagen has not yet shared detailed usage statistics for the AI assistant.
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