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Mercedes Is Adding ChatGPT To Its Infotainment System (techcrunch.com) 71

Posted by BeauHD from the because-why-not dept.
Mercedes is adding OpenAI's ChatGPT to its MBUX infotainment system. "U.S. owners of models that use MBUX will be able to opt into a beta program starting tomorrow, June 16, activating ChatGPT functionality," reports TechCrunch. "This will enable the highly versatile large language model to augment the car's conversation skills. You can join up simply by telling your car 'Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program.'" From the report: Mercedes describes the capabilities thusly: "Users will experience a voice assistant that not only accepts natural voice commands but can also conduct conversations. Soon, participants who ask the Voice Assistant for details about their destination, to suggest a new dinner recipe, or to answer a complex question, will receive a more comprehensive answer -- while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road."

If you're worried about privacy, you should be. Although Mercedes loudly expresses its concern over user data, it's clear that it retains and uses your conversations: "The voice command data collected is stored in the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Cloud, where it is anonymized and analyzed. Mercedes-Benz developers will gain helpful insights into specific requests, enabling them to set precise priorities in the further development of voice control. Findings from the beta program will be used to further improve the intuitive voice assistant and to define the rollout strategy for large language models in more markets and languages."
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Mercedes Is Adding ChatGPT To Its Infotainment System More

Mercedes Is Adding ChatGPT To Its Infotainment System

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  • Who cares about infotainment? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday June 15, 2023 @06:50PM (#63606466)

    Infotainment is already good enough. How about they work on eliminating accidents by adding advanced ADAS features? Like detecting when a driver is going to run a stop sign or traffic light? Things that would reduce the accident rate. You know do stuff that saves lives and limbs rather than this unnecessary BS.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      But this is buzzier. Practical shit doesn't sell; we're dealing with humans here.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        It sells, but not to enough people. See the sad story of Saab. That brand was legendary for its cars having switchology designed by jet fighter designers. You needed to learn the location of the switches for a month, and after that, you could do everything without ever looking away from the road.

        Not nearly enough people were willing to spend time learning, or saw value in the whole "learn once, use forever" switchology, so that company went bankrupt in 2016.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by narcc ( 412956 )

          Saab wasn't Saab in 2016. Saab ceased to be Saab after GM bought them in the late 1980's. The changed hands a few times after that, iirc. A Subaru Saab was a Subaru with a different label. Everything that made their cars special was long gone.

          I drove an '86 900S for years. Best car I ever owned.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sinij ( 911942 )

        Practical shit doesn't sell; we're dealing with humans here.

        It does, or minivans wouldn't exist. Its just does not sell to Mercedes' target audience.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      Infotainment is already good enough.

      it is never good enough for advertising. this site literally lives from it. if you want to do something about it ... what can i say? buy a mercedes?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They are working on it, with MobileEye. They just won't release it until it is decently reliable, because they aren't run by Elon Musk.

      Reading traffic lights is one of those surprisingly difficult things to get right. Different countries put them in different places, and there are often several sets of them for going in different directions, or multiple junctions one after the other. They are also easy to confuse with the lights on cars and especially tall trucks, which are also red.

      Maybe the EU could come

    • There are not-insignificant numbers of times where people have had to ignore normal traffic signals and signs for safety reasons. Or could you imagine being stuck at a light when it malfunctions and is stuck on red. Sure, human error causes accidents, but I don't want my car telling me how to drive. Last ticket I got was a very long time ago.

  • will it have the old map data when ask how to get to X?

  • This should be good (Score:3)

    by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 ) on Thursday June 15, 2023 @07:22PM (#63606504)

    The betting pool is now open for guesses about the time to an authoritative suggestion to drive:
    A) on an active railway
    B) on an active runway
    C) over a nonexistent bridge
    D) across the ocean to Hawaii
    E) through a shopping mall

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Z80a ( 971949 )

      I bet on non-existent everything.
      ChatGPT simply was not trained on every road on the planet, but it still tries to generate text that looks like the correct answer.

      • It was bad with more-or-less factual GPS units... I wonder how it is gong to workout with all this AI hallucination...

  • Great! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Thursday June 15, 2023 @07:24PM (#63606508)

    I've always wanted a driveable cellphone / computer that I could talk to - NOT!

    I think this trend of near-constant interaction with inanimate objects is both a sign and a cause of a deep sickness in our society. There's something just wrong with, for example, tables full of friends and family in a restaurant with their eyes glued to their phones instead with their attention on each other.

    This phenomenon is a growing addiction which will keep wealth flowing to companies like Mercedes. But that's good, right? Because all the wealth will trickle back down, won't it? Reagan was a man of the people, no? /sarc.

    I really don't want a car with a mind of its own that monitors everything I say and do, and passes the information to some mother ship from whence it's sold to advertisers, insurance companies, government agencies, and who knows what other entities. Fuck the surveillance society, fuck the panopticon, and fuck the inversion that has devices directing their owners instead of owners directing their devices.

    /rant

    • The funny thing is that Mercedes' parent country (Germany) is actually one of the most conservative regarding personal privacy ... their laws make surveillance in public places much more difficult than Europe and the US, and their economy is much more "cashy" than other similarly developed countries -- by choice.

      • That attitude might only apply to fellow Germans that could take them to court and sue the daylights out of them. Or to EU Court and really screw them.

        But German companies really know how to extract money from foolish customers like social media influencers, criminals, and Americans.

    • Alternatively, now that BS is exploding thanks to cost of generating it having come down to zero, maybe people will just get tired of ot all and go back to more natural ways of interaction. Everything goes in cycles.

    • Re:Great! (Score:4, Interesting)

      by sound+vision ( 884283 ) on Thursday June 15, 2023 @10:45PM (#63606842) Journal

      I saw a review of the 2023 EQE (electric E-class) recently. All of the controls were full-retard, except where regulated by the government, i.e. gearshift and steering wheel. No real buttons for anything - not the AC, nor the radio, nor the sunroof. Total "iPad stuck on the dashboard" syndrome.

      I was going to make a separate thread about this, but I feel yours cut into the same groove where my mind went: Who wants this shit? Why? Why are people clamoring to have another shiny screen to fixate on during one of the few moments of respite they may have had - while driving? And to the obvious detriment of functionality and safety?

      Cars lost the ashtrays and cigarette lighters, and replaced them with today's acceptable addiction instead.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

        E class is for image reasons. It's leased and sold to upper level corporate people who need to show off a certain kind of status to others.

        "Everything looks cool and is utterly awful to use" is very much a part of this ethos.

        • In the US is a solid family car, when it is running, which is most of the time, with constant expensive maintenance.
          Who knew that luxury costs?!

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            Wait, really? E class as a family car?

            I can see getting a used E class from ten years ago because you need to show off to neighbors, maybe. Even then, a terrible choice because of shit tier comfort/price ratio and as you mentioned, maintenance costs. There are cars that can serve the same purpose for way less in running costs.

            • >I can see getting a used E class from ten years ago because you need to show off to neighbors Here we go. Gently used 10-12 year old E class would feel practically new inside and run well, when maintenance was done. Their V6s are pretty sweet actually. There are only few car brands that have the same interior quality and they go for much more because they are more reliable - Lexus, Acura only come to mind.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

                My point is that yes it looks good. It just isn't actually practical to use. And as a lot of E class cars will be brutally beaten because it will be a company upper management car on lease, so it won't be that reliable at that age.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sinij ( 911942 )

        Total "iPad stuck on the dashboard" syndrome.

        I don't get why this is a thing, but then I spend my day in front of screens and really don't consider them cool.

      • Why? Why are people clamoring to have another shiny screen to fixate on during one of the few moments of respite they may have had - while driving?

        Are people really clamoring for it? Or are they simply accepting it at first, then cheering for it when it gains enough traction in society to start looking like a bandwagon? I think this is being driven - no pun intended - in the same way that addiction is driven by pushers. And I've succumbed to some extent. I'm sitting with my laptop typing this when I have more pressing things to do...

    • I can't wait until one of these in car HALs spazzes and does a "bait car" and locks the owner in to drive him to the nearest police station. Except because of another error, the car drives into a river, and because HAL thinks that the owner is a filthy, dirty car thief as it sizzles and sputters to it's death, saftey is no concern so the owner drowns as well, trapped in the flooding, sinking jail cell.
    • With this rant against the ills of society, are you preparing yourself to be the next unabomber?

      • With this rant against the ills of society, are you preparing yourself to be the next unabomber?

        No. All conversational hyperbole aside, I can't imagine killing anybody unless there was an immediate physical threat to me or someone I care for.

    • i doubt people want to talk to a LLM(beside the AI girlfriend niche) but success or not, it won't change anything, we already prefer our phones to human interaction. I miss pre-internet or at least pre-smartphone era were things were slower and more surprising. Internet is a win for society but in retrospect the always online thing is a net loss. Imagine going somewhere or doing something without knowing if it has 5 stars on tripadvisor and not winning internet clout because you did it, what an adventure! M

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Voice control could be a boon for safety. No need to fiddle with preset buttons to change the radio station, just say "tune to [station]", or "turn on the AC and set it to 23 degrees".

      It has to be really good though. Right now people struggle with voice control because they need to get the specific words that the device is expecting. Or at least they think they do - in my experience Google Assistant is pretty good if you just speak normally to it.

      Part of getting over that is having the device respond in a h

      • Part of getting over that is having the device respond in a human-like fashion, not a robotic way. For example, if you say "turn down the AC a bit", the car can respond "AC speed set to level 2", but it would be better if it said "I've turned the fans down a little". The more conversational it is, the more at-ease the user is, and the more they can concentrate on driving instead of worrying that the car will misunderstand them.

        I'm not sold on that "human-like fashion". It may put drivers more at ease, but it also tends to elevate the car above its appropriate station in life. Your "Earl Grey" comment illustrates my point - cars are rising from inanimate objects to servant-class entities. Servants rise in society to become peers and equals - I applaud that in humans, but I'm not so sure about it in machines. On its face what I've said may seem ludicrous - but in an era of ChatGPT, deep fakes, and the possibly-not-silly threat of A

    • I think this is just the clearest sign yet this company is run by MBAs (who don’t know shit) versus engineers. I had a Mercedes drivetrain many years ago - people should look up where they sit on consumer reports before buying (right at the bottom with Audi, my mistake at the time).

      Very clear: and engineer would understand the limitations and problems of current natural language models, and NEVER recommend this be put in a vehicle. An MBA looking to hop onto current trends would jump right at this,

  • Drifts off shoulder, leaves roadway, flips over several times and lands upside down

    Chat GPT: Are you not infotained? Is this not why you are here?

    • Yep we need to load up on infotainment day and night otherwise people will think you are weird and you smell and they won't like you. "OFF BUTTON?! What is that some anarcocommie sabotaging device?"

  • Is this like the heated seats and stuff? Can you pay a small fee each month to disable the AI?

  • Now that ChatGPT is the latest tech fad Du Jour, who do you think is going to have a ChatGPT-enabled kitchen appliance ready for CES next year? LG? Samsung? Both of them?

    • I was looking for a washing machine last week and Samsung was selling something with an "AI dial" and wifi ... it begins. I almost bought it too, except they only had a 120V model and I wanted a 240V model since I have the outlet and it heats water internally.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sinij ( 911942 )
        Why would you want a model that heats water internally? Do you not already have a dedicated appliance for providing hot water that is designed for that purpose and is much more effective at that?
        • It's connected to the same set of pipes as the bath and shower (probably under-sized) and not using the hot-water supply reduces temperature fluctuations.
          • (Also, washers can heat internally to about 160ÂF, which is hotter than domestic hot water temp of about 140ÂF. European front-load machines with internal heaters just tend to work better than outdated US-market crapolah.)

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by sinij ( 911942 )
              Interesting. I know of old practice of boiling bed sheets, but wasn't sure why it was done.
  • A Mercedes S-Class has a woeful resale value. Do they really think that putting crapware in them is going to help it?

    https://www.edmunds.com/merced... [edmunds.com]
    • It's not really crapware ... more the ability to ACCESS crapware in the "clown."
    • Imagine in the off chance you get one of these cars used 20 years from now. Provided the thing will still run without the mothership to talk to, you have a hunk of useless electronics taking up space and nowhere to install a car radio. Like my dad's '85 Ford Escort that was so barebones that it didn't even have an AM radio. But it wasn't hauling a bunch of inbuilt electronics and systems that didn't work because they are forever stuck at "connecting to server".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      S-class resale value is bad because the car is a status symbol. When it is no longer new it stops being an effective status symbol and normal car valuations come into consideration.
  • "Have 200 spare tires delivered to my house. Accept charges" says the passenger

  • The voice command data collected is stored in the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Cloud...

    Don't they mean someone else's cloud? Everything is subcontracted these days, so I don't buy any of this "anonymized" nonsense.

  • I wonder how many crashes will be caused by reading ChatGPT's overly verbose and factually innacurate replies?
  • Do you really want cars to be crushed because the software is out of date?

  • ...I don't want my car to be online - ever - I don't want updates at random, I don't want them controlling the car remotely ....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Good luck doing that with a Tesla, there are no visible external antennas. Right now the best way to stop a car going online is to not pay the subscription fees. However I suspect in future that won't stop them once the cost of going online falls below the value of the data collected. I would imaging that would be followed up with disabling driving for 'safety' reasons if the car can not get online as often as it wants.
  • We are very early into using Large Language Model (LLM) and there are already various hacks/jailbreaks (e.g., DAN). Considering there is no authentication for such voice prompts in Mercedes's implementation, this will end up badly.

  • Hi there, car. I know that driving into a brick wall is a bad idea in general, but can you make a list of some reasons why it might be a good idea to do so?

    ChatGPT: Certainly! Here are 10 reasons why driving into a wall makes sense.

    Google: In 800 meters your destination will be directly in front of you.

  • Great, I just sold mine. How about you fix the reliability of your drivetrian first?

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