Car and EV manufacturers are taking artificial intelligence for a spin.
This month, Toyota announced it would invest over $10 billion in AI, EVs, and more, according to Nikkei Asia. Chinese EV manufacturer Xpeng said it would bring on 4,000 employees this year as it, too, invests in AI. And Wayve, an AI autonomous vehicle startup, is looking to “build the next generation” of AI-powered vehicles, according to the Guardian. The UK-based startup recently raised over a billion dollars in funding from investors like Microsoft and Nvidia.
Erez Dagan, president of Wayve, told IT Brew in an email via senior PR manager Tilly Pielichaty, that at the moment, “We are seeing alignment between the automotive industry’s roadmap and the embodied AI technology that we have been developing at Wayve since 2017,” adding that capital raised “will therefore propel the launch of the first embodied AI products for OEMs, starting with advanced driver-assistance systems.”
To better understand AI’s impact on the car and EV industry, IT Brew caught up with Alyssa Altman, the senior vice president and auto industry lead for Publicis Sapient, a global digital transformation consulting company.
What’s the appeal for a lot of these car makers to jump in and explore AI?
“There’s a couple areas. First, it’s around personalization,” said Altman, who works directly with US automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers. “When you think about the dollars they’re spending on marketing [it’s about] being able to target those dollars to the right people in the right way…and then, from a branded perspective, if you’re getting in a Cadillac versus getting in a Toyota Camry, what’s the difference of experience you’re creating? And how do you make it a distinct experience?”
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The other aspect, she said, is that automakers are thinking about how they can bring software services to the “forefront for consumers” in a way that separates them from others.
“The actual vehicle itself isn’t going to be what differentiates an EV. What’s going to differentiate [an EV] is the capabilities that you’re buying into,” she said. “And then the fact, too, that it can be updated live. So, over the life-cycle of your relationship with that consumer, you’re able to improve it—similar to your phone.”
As manufacturers tap into AI, are you seeing anything that has surprised you?
“I think what I’m really excited about is how much the dealers are open to change in the space,” she said. “They’re very open, knowing that the market is changing [according] to their interactions—how they’re using AI to communicate to the consumer to make sure there’s less noise in the system.”
IT Brew has reached out to Toyota, Nvidia, and Xpeng for comment.
Microsoft said it did not have any additional information to share at this time, but directed IT Brew to a press release and to comments by Microsoft’s Dominik Wee, who said the company was “pleased to be working with Wayve to develop and deploy Wayve’s end-to-end AI autonomous driving products for automotive enterprise customers.”