Artificial intelligence is clearly the future. In the last couple of years, AI has become mainstream and made its way into pretty much everything. Now, I am someone who takes a keen interest in cars. And the amount of possibilities that AI brings in cars is also very astonishing to think of. While autonomous or self driving is one of the most obvious aspects of AI in cars, it is not limited to that.
Today, let’s talk about what is already possible with the help of AI in cars, what the future holds, and other possibilities that artificial intelligence may unlock in the future. First, let’s start with what’s already possible with AI in cars.
Also Read: ADAS Explained: The tech behind this popular safety and convenience feature
What’s The Buzz
Some of the most common things that manufacturers are showcasing in their AI-enhanced cars are integration of AI in their infotainment systems, driver recognition and schedule understanding, contextual voice assist, and of course, ADAS and self driving.
Now driver recognition and schedule understanding are pretty self explanatory. For example you enter your car and it already knows your seating position, how you like the air conditioning in the car, if you like the sunroof opened or closed, the car will automatically adjust everything according to the driver’s preference the moment they enter.
And that’s not all, cars can also set navigation according to your daily routine. For example, if you leave for work every day at 9AM, your car will be able to recognise that and automatically set the sat nav to your office and give you the quickest route which changes everyday depending on the traffic. This is something that can already be implemented in cars that are coming with AI-powered features.
With driver recognition and schedule understanding, there is a possibility for a car to understand a user’s schedule and keep things ready accordingly. Not just that, it can also reason with things like if the owner likes to stop for coffee on the way to work, the car can suggest all the coffee places on the way.
Your car knows already that you are about to enter and adjusts the temperature accordingly, puts the driver seat in your preferred position, puts on your favourite music, or even keeps the engine running so you can just get in and go and not wait for the car to warm up.
Another thing that can already be made possible by leveraging AI in cars is contextual voice assistant or AI chatbot integration like ChatGPT or Google Gemini. Now, it does sound good that you can ask ChatGPT your queries while on the go. Or maybe instead of giving a precise command, you can tell what you’re feeling and the car will understand what it needs to do. For example, instead of saying “turn on air conditioning,” you can say “I’m feeling hot” and the car will understand it needs to turn on the air conditioning.
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What Could Be
Now, let’s talk about what can be made possible and here, the possibilities actually make a lot of sense and will make owning a car much easier and refined. Few things that come to my mind are maintenance. Not everyone who owns a car is an expert in cars and most of the time, you are clueless about faults in the machine.
With AI, this problem can also be dealt with and the car can run its own analysis and monitor the vehicle health in real time, which will allow the car to predict mechanical failures and help users maintain their cars better.
And these aren’t even all the possibilities that AI can unlock in the automotive industry. One thing which is closer to reality than you think is autonomous driving. With ADAS available in cars around ₹15 lakhs, it is easy to put in perspective what the likes of Tesla or rather Google’s Waymo taxis can do. Yes, we are far from any mainstream car being able to tackle India’s traffic and road irregularities, but it is only a matter of time. Either the traffic and road conditions improve, or the AI becomes so good that it can react to any situation in equal time as humans, if not more.
Also Read: Cars with ADAS in 2024
What could go wrong
Now, while all these features sound really good in terms of making a deeper connection between a car and its user, there are possibilities and issues that need to be addressed. Things like system failure, data privacy issues, ethical crisis – there are many aspects that will need to be ironed out as AI is getting more advanced and gaining popularity in the automotive segment.
For example, AI systems are reliant on software. What happens if the software malfunctions or a glitch happens that leads to a life threatening accident? Or what if the machine has to choose between multiple unfavourable outcomes like prioritising between the passenger or the pedestrian’s safety? All of these things need to be ironed out as the use cases of AI rapidly open up new avenues in the automotive space.
Good news