Leading Car Manufacturers Turn to Virtual Assistants

You don’t have to be a big shot in a multi-national company to have a personal assistant nowadays. A plethora of websites offers human virtual assistants, and if this won’t do, computers, tablets and Smartphones come with their digital VA which will obligingly remind you of appointments, your mum’s birthday or your shopping list.

The latest development to this technology is its progressive integration into vehicles. It is becoming more commonplace to be able to connect Blue Tooth devices and Smartphones to a vehicle’s on-board computer, but the next step is to have a fully-fledged Virtual Assistant in your car.

During the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early January 2017, five leading car manufacturers have started the year with the announcement that they had reached agreements with technological giants to add Virtual Assistants to new cars: Nissan and BMW have chosen Microsoft's Cortana while Ford has opted for Amazon’s Alexa for a selection of its models, and Hyundai and Daimler have confirmed that their cars will be partly operable with Google Assistant.

While Apple's Siri is already available in certain cars produced by some of those manufacturers (BMW, Nissan, Hyundai and Ford), this move aims at offering greater car functionality, and to allow connection to Smart devices.

Ford plans to give their vehicles the abilities to close garage doors and synchronise audiobooks so that you can continue listening to it in your car at the exact place you left off at home. Hyundai will use Google Assistant to integrate with its Blue Link software so that drivers can perform tasks by voice alone, including starting their car, adjusting the air-conditioning, locking the doors or sending the vehicle destination details.

Toyota will also equip its Concept-I, a futuristic concept car, with a Virtual Assistant, but without outsourcing the software, as it will be developing its own VA, named Yui.

The benefits of having your own VA connected in your car are obvious. Imagine that you are en route to meet your other half at a restaurant to celebrate your anniversary which may have, well, slipped your mind a little… It wouldn’t do to arrive empty-handed but you don’t know where to find a florist. Just ask your automotive VA, and it will find one near you and send directions to your SatNav at your request.

Now, you were doing fine for time, but this detour will get you late. Your Virtual Assistant can also inform your beloved of your new estimated time of arrival with one click. Now, imagine that you REALLY forgot your anniversary and you were supposed to reserve a table at your favourite restaurant. Now, you would be in big trouble were it not for your VA which, once again, will save your bacon and do it for you!

And if you are just plain bored, you can entertain yourself by asking silly questions to your Virtual Assistant such as ‘When will the world end?’, ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’, etc... for, without a doubt, interesting answers!

This drive to integrate VA into cars is an extension of the development of assisted driving features and driverless technology. While it is easy to see how hugely convenient it can be to be able to save mental notes there and then before you forget them, start the heating at your home so that it is warm when you arrive, and generally manage your life on the go, the fact remains that it is a distraction when driving.

Using mobile phones in moving vehicles was originally banned in many countries on the ground that physically holding a phone meant that you were driving with only one hand which is unsafe, especially in a car with manual transmission. Hands-free systems were thought to be the solution but a study by the University of Sussex in the UK has shown that their use had little effect in reducing the rate of accidents due to being on the phone. What makes having a phone conversation dangerous is that it diverts attention from the road.

In that context, one has to wonder whether the idea of being able to do more while driving is a positive development. Some analysts predict that cars will become an extension of the home, an ‘entertainment space’ - through its partnership with Ford, Amazon is probably hoping to benefit from a captive audience and will undoubtedly encourage purchases with quick and easy access to its website – and to their critics, car manufacturers answer that the end game is that vehicles will eventually do the driving, leaving us to watch a movie with our feet up.

Having said that, if applied to managing the car itself, Virtual Assistants could be really useful. For example, they could monitor the health of your car and alert you when you need to pump up your tyres, or make an appointment with a mechanic on your behalf when repairs, servicing or technical inspections are needed. Should you have an accident, it could communicate directly with your roadside assistance company and, trigger their staff to send someone. It could also contact your loved ones to let them know what has happened, send them your exact position and inform whoever is expecting you that you will be delayed. This would save you numerous phone calls in a stressful situation and would definitely bring many benefits.

Whether you think VAs in cars are a great idea or not, they immediately bring with them the risk of hacking inherent to any networked information, and the need for software companies to develop robust firewall to prevent access to personal data.

If you are an early adopter and plan on acquiring one of those cars with Virtual Assistants, no doubt they will be pre-programmed with our name as we are a well-established shipping company worth knowing! Cars, vans, motorhomes and even boats, we can assist you with importing or exporting. To find out more, contact McCullough on +64 9 303 0075 or request a free quote.