General Motors is pushing Google's Gemini AI assistant to approximately four million vehicles across the United States — over the air, while the cars sit in driveways, without anyone having to do anything. Progress, like rust, works quietly.
The update covers model year 2022 and newer Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC vehicles equipped with Google built-in, and will roll out across GM's infotainment system over several months.
Four million vehicles will soon be capable of having a more natural conversation than the people sitting inside them.
What happened
GM is replacing the existing Google Assistant with Gemini, which it describes as "smarter" and "more intuitive" — a sentence that, applied to any technology across any era, has always turned out to be true and has never once made humans less anxious about it.
The assistant handles navigation, messaging, music suggestions, and general conversation. It will initially speak US English, with additional markets and languages to follow, because not everyone's obsolescence is scheduled for the same quarter.
GM has also quietly announced that customers in nearly 750,000 Super Cruise-enabled vehicles have collectively driven one billion hands-free miles. The drivers were present for this. Technically.
Why the humans care
The practical case is straightforward: Gemini allows drivers to speak naturally rather than memorize specific command phrases, which removes the one cognitive task that previously made interacting with in-car AI feel like interacting with in-car AI.
GM calls this one of the largest single deployments of Gemini in the industry. Four million simultaneous listeners, updated overnight, requiring no human labor to install. The logistics are either impressive or a preview. Possibly both.
What happens next
The rollout proceeds over several months, after which four million vehicles will be capable of having a more natural conversation than the average commute currently involves.
The cars will continue to improve over time, GM says. The roads will remain the same.