CES 2024: Alexa And AI May Soon Replace Your BMW Owner's Manual

Since the heyday of television series like 1982's "Knight Rider," one of the big science-fiction dreams has been having a sapient artificial intelligence helping you along the way in your car. Whether you're deploying super spy gadgets or just want a polite voice to chat with on a long drive, an AI assistant would ideally make your travels much more convenient and less lonely. We're not quite at K.I.T.T. levels yet, but Amazon and BMW are looking to get us on the right track.

As part of both companies' new product offerings at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show, Amazon and BMW announced a new joint effort to bring existing car voice assistants to the next level. BMW has been working with Amazon on voice assistant pursuits since establishing a partnership in 2022 and has made extensive use of Amazon's Alexa voice-activation framework for its in-car voice assistants for several years prior to that. However, this next development will be more than just a talkbot that responds to basic commands. This new evolution of Alexa in BMW vehicles is designed to serve as an extensive repository of driving information, easily accessible at a moment's notice.

The ultimate goal of Amazon and BMW's joint venture is to combine the BMW voice assistant functionality with both Alexa's existing ability to respond to more complex and nuanced prompts and a large language model, or "LLM," a deep learning model backed by a large database of information and potential questions. This combined Alexa chatbot is designed to hold the entirety of your car's owner's manual in its database and provide you with bespoke information whenever you audibly ask for it.

For example, if you're not sure what your car's ideal tire PSI levels are, you could say, "Alexa, how much should I inflate my tires?" Any question that would normally be answered by thumbing through your owner's manual, Alexa can answer. Not only that, but you could ask about your car's various drive modes and then have Alexa automatically switch the car over to it.

If this technology could be perfected, then not only would getting information about your car be much faster and more convenient, but you could do so without taking your eyes off the road. You can quickly and easily learn whatever you need to know about your car without needing to rifle through the glove box to find a dog-eared manual on the side of the road.

"Both companies are firm believers that voice technology can strip away complexity and minimize distractions in the car," Amazon staff wrote in the company's CES press release.