General
Motors has partnered with IBM to add the latter's artificial intelligence
smarts to its cars. IBM's Watson will be used to augment GM's OnStar service,
which currently offers features like vehicle tracking and turn-by-turn
navigation for a monthly subscription fee.
The upgraded
OnStar Go, though, seems to be more about advertising than anything else. GM
says the main use will be to let drivers "connect and interact with their
favorite brands," with Watson crunching data on users habits to deliver personalized
services. Depending on your outlook, some of these services could be genuinely
useful. Or, they could be just another unnecessary and intrusive attempt to
sell you things. This time, though, it's happening in your car.
Details on
these services are pretty thin at the moment, but GM has outlined a number of
potential uses, including:
- Curating "personalized experiences" on iHeartRadio based on drivers' listening habits
- Directing drivers to nearby Exxon and Mobil fuel stations when their car is running low on gas
- Making in-car payments using Mastercard's Masterpass system
As mentioned
above, details on these features are few and far between, but even these brief
descriptions raises some questions. For example, will the car direct you only
to Exxon and Mobile fuel stations when you're running low on gas? What if other
fuel stations are cheaper or nearer? The Wall Street Journal notes that GM and
IBM will share revenue generated by these advertising tie-ins, which makes it
seem doubly unfair to drivers who are already paying for an OnStar subscription
to then get advertised to in a deal that might actually be detrimental to them
(by directing them to a far away fuel station) but that pays out for GM.
WHO REALLY BENEFITS FROM THESE SYSTEMS?
Other features
outlined by GM seem more about competing with the digital assistants offered by
companies like Amazon and Google. These assistants are supposed to learn about
your habits in order to make timely suggestions, like, leaving work 20 minutes
early to avoid traffic. GM suggests that the AI-infused OnStar Go might be able
to make similar interventions; for example, reminding a "working father to
pick up diapers and formula at the pharmacy a few miles before his exit, so he
won’t have to leave the house again once he gets home."
That
certainly sounds useful in theory, but there's no explanation of where GM is
getting this data from. Would drivers have to explain that they have children
during a set-up process? And how would OnStar Go know when they're running low
on diapers? Does it have access to some to-do list?
In fairness
to GM, this is all opt-in, and the company describes these features only as
"potential uses" — suggesting it's not exactly thought through what
implementing them would mean. But if it hasn't fully developed these ideas, it
probably shouldn't be touting them as benefits. At any rate, GM says it wants
to make OnStar Go available in two million cars by the end of 2017. Looking out
for branded adverts coming soon to a dashboard near you. Source: GM
No comments:
Post a Comment