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AI Microsoft

TomTom Creates AI-Based Conversational Assistant For Vehicles With Microsoft (reuters.com) 23

An anonymous reader writes: Digital mapping specialist TomTom said on Tuesday it has partnered with tech giant Microsoft to create an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational assistant for vehicles. The assistant will allow users to "converse naturally with their vehicles" and enable voice interaction with infotainment, location search, and vehicle command systems, the company said.

TomTom, which competes with Google Maps and the world's biggest mapping platform HERE, used various Microsoft services like its Azure OpenAI Service to create the voice assistant. The Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service allows enterprises to leverage ChatGPT maker OpenAI's large language models (LLM). The voice assistant can be integrated into other automotive infotainment systems and is also built into TomTom's Digital Cockpit, an open, modular in-vehicle infotainment platform, the Dutch map maker said. The company began working with Microsoft in 2016, when it first started powering Azure Maps location services.

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TomTom Creates AI-Based Conversational Assistant For Vehicles With Microsoft

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  • Another woman who won't stop talking.

  • Ripley: Mother! I've turned the cooling unit back on. Mother!
    Mother: The ship will automatically destruct in T minus five minutes.

    Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
    HAL9000: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

    Spock: Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them.

    R. Daneel Olivaw: A robot must not hurt a human being, unless he can think of a way to prove it is for the human beingâ(TM)s ultimate good after all.

    Eddie the Computer: Guys, I am ju

  • I don't need to be tracked by Microsoft thank you very much.

    • Go back to sleep old man. This makes perfect sense the single most frustrating thing about non-phone based navigation is address entry and verification if AI can take my stupid voice and make it an accurate destination then great.
      • What if my destination is a no-parking zone and I don't want them to ticket me out of spite because I am not hurting anything by parking there overnight?

      • Old man eh?

        That's what's terrible with newer generations: many want the convenience but don't think of the consequences - or internalized the corporate surveillance as something that just happens nowadays and move on.

        So you think Microsoft tracking you is okay do you? What if you happen to request a destination near a murder scene and Microsoft snitches on you [legalexaminer.com]?

        Yes, I know it was Google and Google ended geofence warrants recently. But the core tenet remains the same: you're being closely watched by an unprin

  • Not to buy. Meanwhile, even more cars (and their occupants) will go into rivers while traversing non-existent bridges or fords, or go missing while taking short cuts using "mountain passes still open during winter."
  • TomTom is still around? Thought they went down with Blackberry.

  • People don't like natural language interfaces. It seems like a good idea at first, but it's impossible to get right. There's just too much variety on the human side. Ultimately, it just means the humans adapting to the machine, not the other way around.

    There's little more frustrating than a natural language interface when it doesn't understand you. Given that humans often have trouble understanding each other, even when they've known one another for years, the machine is doomed to fail.

    • Have you ever tried entering an address in the typical in-car GPS?
      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        What makes you think that a natural language interface is going to do a better job?

        Not that I've ever had a problem. Just follow the prompts. They tend to ask for the address in a way that narrows the list of possible addresses the fastest. It also eliminates a lot of possible error.

      • That's solvable with speech-to-text, not an "ai-based conversational assistant" unless they just they just labeled it that way for investor money (didn't RTFA or RTFS though)
    • by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

      That is the case with "dumb" systems like the Android Assistant, which seem to be hard-coded to certain specific prompts and they get confused easily. But LLM-based solutions have completely changed the situation. Even GPT-2 can reliably pick-out key elements from a command.

      For example: "Send a message to Jane telling her that Bob is going to pick up the groceries for her"

      Android Assistant: Probably complains that it can't find a contact named "Jane Telling" then once you manually select Jane Smith from t

      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        LLM-based solutions have completely changed the situation

        That's more than a little optimistic.

        LLMs are certainly better, but they're far from reliable enough to be less frustrating than traditional interfaces. They're also significantly more expensive to operate, so expect significant cost cutting measures that will reduce already disappointing performance.

        This is essentially a translation task, though from a loose and ambiguous human language to a very precise computer language. LLMs are not magic. They will invariable fail to perform adequately, which will f

  • Why not just put the crushing machine at the end of the assembly line?
  • I thought that every company who worked with Microsoft on infotainment systems had left them. Ford certainly left them. So what cars will this even be available in?
  • "Microsoft Bo m b?"
    "Let there be light!"

  • 15 minutes to Waterway Highcliff. Error twenty-three. No construction information available. No weather information available. After you reach your destination, get the app and join our community! Sharing and stuff. Arrr
    a
    a
    a
    a
    a
    aagh!
    PShh

  • >> and the world's biggest mapping platform HERE. Yeah right! They are barely a 50th the size of waze. No idea where these stats come from...

Don't panic.

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