GM wants to turn your car into a personal AI assistant on wheels

When General Motors launched OnStar 30 years ago, it was a novel way to connect people to the internet while they were inside their cars: Press the button on the rearview mirror, and the system calls an OnStar agent who can see your location, give directions, and send out first responders in the event of a crash. That was years before the first iPhone debuted. Today, most people carry smartphones that can give directions and detect crashes. To go beyond those use cases, OnStar is now getting an upgrade for the AI age—one that turns it into more of a personal assistant. “Hey OnStar, it’s getting warm in here,” you could say while driving. In response, the temperature in your vehicle’s cabin will automatically adjust, without you having to navigate your car’s touch screen. Say “It’s too dark in here,” and it will turn on the interior lights. [Image: GM] Or you might ask what that beeping you heard was, and it will explain if it was from a safety feature, like a sensor that alerts you if you’re close to another vehicle or going above the speed limit. There’s still the opportunity to connect with a real person through OnStar, GM says, as the tool will be “complemented” by human suppor…

≈