Automakers are betting that artificial intelligence will give them an excuse to charge more for cars, moving beyond standard hardware features to monetize software and data services.
General Motors, Ford Motor Co., and other manufacturers are deploying AI assistants to make vehicles more personalized and ultimately more profitable. GM began rolling out the Google Gemini AI assistant on about 4 million vehicles in the U.S. from the 2022 model year and newer, with plans to integrate an assistant created in-house in the future. Ford is offering an AI assistant through its smartphone app, with plans to launch an in-vehicle version starting in 2027 on the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs.
At the same time, BMW is integrating Amazon’s AI technology into its vehicles, Volkswagen has brought ChatGPT into its voice assistant, and Mercedes-Benz and Google have partnered on an AI-based system.
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GM’s proprietary AI system “potentially makes that ecosystem much easier for consumers to access,” said Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis at AutoPacific. “A generic chatbot knows information,” Waatti said. “A properly integrated automotive assistant can know the state of the vehicle, its state of charge, tire pressure, route, HVAC settings, maintenance status, Super Cruise availability and eventually a much deeper set of vehicle functions.”
Chinese engineering expertise
Time was, global automakers brought platforms and technology to China through joint ventures. Now Geely Automotive Holdings is flipping that model, offering legacy brands from Detroit to Europe starter kits for making cars at China Speed. The offer comes with 800 engineers, modular platforms, artificial intelligence-powered electrical architectures, and hyper-efficient manufacturing systems that can slash development cycles and cost.
A recently established division at Geely is dedicated to collaborating with partners on tailor-made, end-to-end services that leverage its China-based engineering and production capabilities. The company says this is a way to show others how to make cars the Chinese Way. Geely established its External Collaboration Research Institute in 2021. Now, it has more than 100 projects underway with a dozen clients, including Renault and Waymo.
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Industry watchers liken the new approach to a “reverse joint venture.”
Energy storage shift
A few years ago, battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution was racing to make cells for electric vehicles. Today, its focus has mostly flipped to a new product: energy storage batteries. Most of LG Energy’s North American factories are making energy-storage batteries, or gearing up to, said Robert Lee, the company’s president for the region. Demand for large battery cells to store power is booming from the buildout of AI data centers.
It has been a frenetic pivot for battery companies and automakers, which poured tens of billions into U.S. battery factories early this decade in anticipation of an EV boom that has not materialized. South Korea’s LG Energy, which says it is North America’s largest battery maker by number of cells produced, said five of its eight factories in the region will be making batteries for energy storage systems, or ESS, by the end of this year.
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“We’re highlighting ESS right now because that was the growth that we didn’t expect,” Lee told Reuters during an opening event on Tuesday at LG Energy’s factory in Lansing, Michigan.
Robot police
The robotics division of China’s largest auto exporter Chery Automobile is gearing up for an IPO to fund future growth and investments, its chief said on Wednesday, as competition intensifies in the country’s fast-growing humanoid robot sector. AiMOGA Robotics is in talks over potential listing venues and expects to sharply increase humanoid robot deliveries next year as it seeks to join the ranks of global robotics heavyweights, Zhang Guibing, head of the business and president of Chery International, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Robot Conference in Beijing.
Earlier this year, AiMOGA unveiled humanoid police robots, with 110 units already deployed across multiple Chinese cities to assist with traffic management, crowd guidance and public-safety awareness campaigns.