TomTom and Microsoft team up to bring generative AI to automobiles
Get
ready for a ‘fully integrated’ conversational driving assistant.
TomTom just announced a “fully integrated, AI-powered conversational automotive assistant” which should start popping up in dashboard infotainment platforms in the near future. The company has issued some bold claims for the AI, saying it’ll offer “more sophisticated voice interaction” and allow users to converse naturally to navigate, find stops along a route, control onboard systems, open windows, and just about anything else you find yourself doing while driving.
The
company, best known for GPS platforms, partnered up with Microsoft to develop
this AI assistant. The technology leverages OpenAI’s large language models, in
addition to Microsoft products like Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Cognitive
Services. Cosmos DB is a multi-model database and Cognitive Services is a set
of APIs for use in AI applications, so this should be a capable assistant that
draws from the latest advancements.
TomTom
promises that the voice assistant will integrate into a variety of interfaces
offered by major automobile manufacturers, stating that the auto company will
retain ownership of its branding. So this could start showing up in cars from various
makers. The company hasn’t announced any definitive partnerships with known
vehicle manufacturers, but the technology will be integrated into
TomTom’s proprietary Digital Cockpit, an
open and modular in-vehicle infotainment platform.
This
isn’t the first time a company has tried to stuff an LLM inside of a car. In
June, Mercedes announced a three-month beta program incorporating
ChatGPT models into select vehicles. This tool also leveraged Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service. TomTom is
showing off the AI at CES in January, so we’ll know more about how it works at
that point.
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