Google’s Gemini AI Is Coming Soon to a Dashboard Near You
Get ready to talk to your car in new and profound ways.
While AI hasn't exactly taken over every part of our lives yet, it's certainly dominating the tech news cycle. It's also popping up in endless pseudo-intelligent artificial agents running on our phones and watches and laptop computers. About the one place AI hasn't had a significant impact so far is inside of our cars, but that's about to change in a big, big way.
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Today at Google I/O, a developer conference that takes place every year in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Mountain View, California–based search giant announced a significant upgrade to both Android Auto and Android Automotive OS. This will finally bring Gemini, Google's artificial intelligence chatbot, to millions of cars by the end of the year.
A quick refresher because it's a little confusing: Android Auto is the projection-based infotainment experience powered by your smartphone. Plug a compatible Android device into a compatible car, or connect it wirelessly, and Android Auto provides a car-friendly way to access much of the power of your phone without actually having to touch the thing.
Android Automotive OS takes that further by running Google apps natively in the car. That means full access to Google Maps or Waze, whether you have your phone or not. The experience is much the same, but in this case, Android is powering all the displays in the car, as well as apps like Spotify or YouTube Music that rely on the car's cellular data connection. This is the software that powers the interface in everything from the Rivian R1S to the Polestar 3.
Both Android Auto and Android Automotive rely heavily on voice commands, letting you do things like find a nice place for dinner or text your mom that you're running a little late, all without having to tap or touch anything. Given that, you might be thinking you've already been talking to an AI of sorts, but this sort of basic, question/response interaction is about to be superseded.
Gemini AI, Making Things More Natural
Gemini, Google's AI chatbot, elevates that experience to a new level by offering more capabilities within the car and a far more natural experience. Going forward, voice interactions will be far more fluid and natural.
Patrick Brady, VP of Android for cars at Google, walked me through some of the changes, and one of the biggest is being able to combine things, like messaging and navigation, into a single request.
"I can just say, 'Hey, send a text message to Tim and ask him where he wants to meet for lunch and send him my ETA,'" Brady said. "You don't need to dictate exactly."
Being able to not only send messages but find restaurants with nuanced descriptions and do it all in a single request makes this far more powerful than what we can do in cars today. That intelligence extends into other apps like YouTube Music. Instead of having to request specific songs, artists, or albums, you can say, "Play me that song that won the Grammy in 1996."
"Gemini also has memory," Brady said. "You can tell Gemini, 'Hey, whenever I send a message to Carlos, send it in Spanish.'" From then on, whenever you text Carlos through Gemini, it'll send your message in Spanish, even if you don't speak the language.
Gemini will also have access to other elements of your digital life, or at least those elements you've exposed to Google. If you use Gmail, for example, you could say, "What was that restaurant my wife emailed me about last month?"
Those requests will be conversational, too, with Gemini remembering context and prior conversations. So, if you're sick of the "Hey, Google" call and response operation that we have today, get ready to just have a casual conversation with your car.
Google calls this service Gemini Live, which you can try on your PC or smartphone today. Brady believes this will fit nicely into the way many people use their in-car time to learn new information. He said you can do everything from brainstorming recipes to getting ideas for summer vacation plans.
Gemini Can Chat with Your Car
Not only will you be able to talk to Gemini, but Gemini will be able to talk to your car, too. Eventually, at least. Brady said Google is working with manufacturers to expose elements of vehicle functionality to Gemini, so that you can change vehicle settings by voice.
Features that Google Assistant can adjust in the car today will be supported with Gemini, like turning on seat heaters or toggling other vehicle settings. Yes, you can certainly do that by voice in plenty of cars today, but instead of having to remember the exact command that the car wants to hear, you could simply tell Gemini what you want it to do and let it figure out how to make it happen.
It'll be up to the manufacturers how deeply they want to let Gemini's tendrils into the car's settings, but Google also hopes those manufacturers will teach Gemini the specifics of each car it’s installed in. That would enable you to get information about your specific car. For example, instead of rummaging through the manual or squinting at the sticker inside the door frame to figure out your car's ideal tire pressures, soon you'll be able to just ask Gemini.
How soon? Well, that part is a bit vague. Brady said Android Auto users will get it via an update over the next few months, while cars with built-in Google experiences will receive it later this year. Specific timing will depend on the manufacturers' update processes.
It's worth noting that, even in the case of cars running Android Automotive, Gemini won't actually be running in your vehicle. It'll rely on sending requests to a Google server somewhere far away to do all the heavy number crunching. Full-bore in-car AI is coming, but that's probably a little further down the road.