How To Use ChatGPT In Your Mercedes-Benz
In 2018, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class introduced the MBUX Voice Assistant. At the time, the leader of the MBUX Speech Technology Team, André Berton, explained in the Daimler Blog that the system was intended to be a cut above. It's not as reliant on an Internet connection (which will often be sporadic at best while on the road), through its Nuance Communications functionality. It also emphasizes the importance of providing satisfactory answers without requiring users to stick to very specific queries or phrasing.
As owners will know, it's possible to ask the car to turn on its AC, turn up the radio, give weather reports, and much more, beginning with a casual "Hey Mercedes." This is all very convenient, but the auto manufacturer is now developing the technology further with the ubiquitous ChatGPT.
Here's how OpenAI's chatbot is being implemented, and when Mercedes-Benz users can get access to it. ChatGPT is well known for finding ways to save us time, and here's yet another.
MBUX, supercharged
AI systems like ChatGPT seem to have thoroughly infiltrated many facets of our lives and are even changing the way we think. It's probably no surprise, then, that it's set to infiltrate some of our cars too. June 16 2023 marked the beginning of Mercedes-Benz's MBUX beta program, which allows almost one million drivers of applicable MBUX-equipped cars to sign up to trial the implementation.
To do so, drivers can, in an appropriate fashion, simply say "Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program" from their car. Alternatively, the Mercedes Me app also allows users to sign up.
Upon doing so, MBUX will have access to ChatGPT's ability to interpret language. Rather than a relatively simple question-and-answer model, it will instead provide suggestions of its own and hold something of a conversation.
To address the data concerns regarding ChatGPT, Mercedes-Benz's press release states, "Customers know at all times what information is collected and for what purpose, and they are free to make their own decisions. Mercedes-Benz protects all customer data from manipulation and misuse."
The functionality is provided by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, which means Microsoft's platform is combined with that of Mercedes-Benz's framework and ChatGPT itself to make for functionality with a lot of potential. Users will be able to ask their own, more open-ended queries, and when the three-month beta is over, the car manufacturer will determine whether ChatGPT integration will be pursued further in future models.