The next personal AI assistant? Your car

TL;DR: One day soon, your household might have its very own robot butler on wheels—not in your home, but sitting in the driveway. GM’s latest pitch for a do-more vehicle shows that the race to stuff every gadget with AI features is now coming for our cars, too.

What happened: One of the world’s biggest automakers has a very bold, Knight Rider-like vision of what cars could do in the future: not just drive you places, but (eventually) run errands—like picking up groceries—without you.

At its annual tech showcase in New York City yesterday, the company presented a slate of new AI-powered features and plans that would make driving more seamless and, as strange as it sounds, productive. The star of the show: a new in-car personal assistant called OnStar AI coming first to the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq, which can take plain-language voice commands for the car’s climate controls, lights, music, and more, as well as answer questions you have about the vehicle.

AI assistant for your wheels: GM isn’t alone in bringing more AI features into your car. This week, Google also announced that Gemini in Android Auto can now tap into more of your Google apps, like Gmail and Calendar—so you can say “take me to my doctor’s appointment” instead of typing in the address manually.

Notably, GM is phasing out popular phone mirroring features like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in favor of expanding its own software (though it’s still powered by Gemini), because switching between the phone and car apps is “very clunky,” per GM CEO Mary Barra. (Plus, offering a built-in car assistant is a way for automakers to sell more subscriptions and collect more data on customers.)

Your chore-ffeur awaits: By 2028, GM says some of its cars will drive themselves on highways without needing your eyes on the road. Further out, the company imagines a “Mission Mode” feature where your car basically becomes a productivity assistant, picking up your kids, fetching the dry cleaning, or finding a parking spot—all with no human at the wheel. (Though GM hasn’t said when we can expect these handy features.)

And it’s not just GM that’s rethinking what your car can do for you. Your four-wheeled assistant could even get a part-time job soon: Tesla said yesterday that customers will be able to add their own cars to its robotaxi fleet around mid-2027—which could, in theory, earn some passive income for Tesla owners when they’re not using their cars.

Bottom line: GM is pitching a strange new evolution of the family sedan: a car that, per Wired, is a “sort of a personal assistant, and sort of a spouse, and sort of a tool, and sort of a best friend.” —WK