Volkswagen is taking its ChatGPT voice assistant experiment to the road. Or, more precisely, to the vehicles it sells in the United States.
The German automaker announced plans at CES 2024 in January to add an AI-powered chatbot to all Volkswagen models equipped with the IDA voice assistant. However, the United States was excluded from that initial rollout.
Now, the automaker is rolling out its ChatGPT-integrated Plus Speech voice assistant — which is an AI chatbot powered by Cerence’s Chat Pro product and OpenAI’s vast language model — in fresh vehicles in the U.S. The rollout will begin on September 6 with the 2025 Jetta and Jetta GLI models, as well as the 2024 ID.4 vehicles equipped with the 82-kWh battery. Most 2025 models will offer Plus Speech with AI at launch.
Disclaimer: Subscription required, although ID.4 and ID Buzz offer three years of free access.