General Motors announced on Wednesday at the GM Forward event in New York that it will integrate a conversational AI assistant powered by Google Gemini into its cars, trucks, and SUVs starting next year. This will be one of the first AI features offered to consumers by General Motors.

The assistant can help drivers with tasks such as navigation, route planning, sending messages, and preparing for meetings through natural voice interaction. It can also access the web to answer questions like "What is the history of this bridge?" The Gemini assistant will be available via wireless updates through the Play Store, compatible with 2015 and newer models equipped with OnStar.

Google's large model Gemini

Dave Richardson, Senior Vice President of Software and Services at General Motors, stated that Gemini has strong semantic understanding and context memory capabilities, which can avoid issues with traditional voice assistants such as "not understanding" or "rigid commands," providing users with a more natural and smooth experience. In the future, the assistant will be deeply integrated with the vehicle system, offering maintenance alerts, personalized route suggestions, and pre-starting the air conditioning.

Richardson emphasized that users have full control over the assistant's data access permissions, and all data will only be used for product improvement and will not be sold. In recent years, General Motors has formed a dedicated data governance team and hired Christina Montgomery, former Chief Privacy Officer of IBM, to strengthen privacy and compliance management.

Currently, car manufacturers such as Stellantis, Mercedes, and Tesla are also accelerating the integration of generative AI assistants. General Motors' Gemini project marks a new stage in the intelligent competition within the automotive industry.