TomTom, the GPS maker, is teaming up with Microsoft to enhance drivers’ experiences. Following the advent of smart phones and wide connectivity, GPS makers have been declining.
Microsoft has also been lagging behind Google and Apple in the smartphone market. Since the discontinuing of the Windows Phone, Microsoft has been focusing on business and consumer computers. The two companies released through Yahoo Finance:
TomTom (TOM2), the location technology specialist, today announced that, together with Microsoft, it is bringing the benefits of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to the global automotive industry.
Leveraging Microsoft’s advancements in AI, TomTom has developed a fully integrated, AI-powered conversational automotive assistant that enables more sophisticated voice interaction with infotainment, location search, and vehicle command systems. Drivers can converse naturally with their vehicle and ask the AI-powered assistant to navigate to a certain location, find specific stops along their route, and vocally control onboard systems to, for instance, turn up the temperature, open windows, or change radio stations. All with a single interaction.
TomTom and Microsoft will have to design a UI that can remain competitive with Androids and iPhones. Otherwise, consumers will stick with their phone’s default navigation. Endgadget reports:
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 a wide variety of 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. Back in June, Mercedes announced a three-month beta program that incorporated 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 actually works at that point.
Connectivity in cars, combined with AI and self-driving technology, seems to be where the industry is heading. Keeping the technology interoperable between cars will be the next challenge that Microsoft and TomTom will have to solve.
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