DS employs ChatGPT as AI travel companion for its entire range of cars

Following a successful trial phase launched last year, DS has announced it will integrate the hugely popular AI programme ChatGPT into its ‘DS IRIS’ suite of connected systems, available across its entire range of cars including the DS 3 crossover, DS 4 hatchback, DS 7 SUV and DS 9 saloon.

For anyone who’s been living off the grid in a nuclear bunker since late 2022, ChatGPT is a ‘generative artificial intelligence model’. Essentially it’s an AI programme that has been trained by consuming enormous amounts of text from the internet, that uses the information to generate natural and fluid responses to questions and prompts.

It also draws on every scrap of information available online in order to provide detailed and, hopefully, accurate answers to almost any question you throw at it – as almost everyone with internet access seems to have been doing since it went live.

What’s this got to do with cars? Well, DS has employed ChatGPT to create a handy AI travel companion that complements the brand’s existing voice recognition tech, and provides travel advice and information.

For instance, drivers can ask if there are any places on their journey they might want to visit, or even highly specific questions like “what do you advise me to do in this castle if I have two hours and I’m with my 10-year-old son?” But it can do much more, like create a quiz on your favourite subject or even a children's story during a road trip.

You don’t have to open a special app to explore what the AI can do, as DS has integrated ChatGPT directly into its regular voice recognition system which drivers can activate by voice command or pressing a button on the steering wheel.

ChatGPT will feature in all models with the ‘DS IRIS’ setup delivered from March. That means it’ll be standard-fit on every DS 4, DS 7 and DS 9, plus all but the most bog-standard version of the DS 3.

Yves Bonnefont, chief software officer of Stellants (which owns DS, as well as Peugeot, Citroen, and Vauxhall) said: “After the great success of our pilot phase and the enthusiastic response from our customers, we are proud to be the first OEM to be able to integrate the ChatGPT function as standard, starting with all DS models and soon followed by other Stellantis brands.”

Peugeot has already confirmed that its latest generation of vehicles, including both passenger cars and vans, will be offered with ChatGPT towards the end of 2024. Meanwhile, Volkswagen and Skoda have also announced the AI chatbot will be part of their next-generation infotainment systems.

But Luis Medinas, project manager at Volkswagen, has informed us that VW plans to go beyond enhancing its standard voice assistant with ChatGPT, the goal being to enable two-way conversations between the driver and AI.

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