General Motors Brings IBM Watson Into its Vehicles
October 25 2016 - 6:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Rachel King and Mike Colias
General Motors Co. is enlisting digital smarts from
International Business Machines Corp.'s Watson in an effort to
leapfrog other tech companies inside the car.
The auto maker Wednesday is unveiling a new version of its
OnStar system to offer mobile-commerce services beyond navigation
and entertainment. The enhanced system, dubbed OnStar Go, is
designed to learn users' behavior to deliver personalized offers
from partners such as Exxon Mobil Corp. For instance, the system
might tell drivers they don't have enough fuel to make it to their
next destination and point the way to Exxon Mobil locations en
route.
OnStar is a GM subscription offering that provides navigation,
diagnostics, security, hands-free calling, and access to a human
helpdesk. The new features let users opt into relationships with
retail partners that will be tracked by Watson. Partners will be
able to offer drivers goods and services tailored to users' habits,
location, and factors such as weather. The system doesn't currently
respond to voice commands but will by late 2017, IBM said.
GM and IBM will share revenue with partners, though the
companies declined to provide details of the arrangements. Current
partners include Exxon Mobil, MasterCard Inc., parking lot
directory Parkopedia, music provider iHeartMedia Inc., and Glympse,
a location-aware messaging network.
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said the goal is to optimize
driving time by connecting drivers to the world outside their car.
The system will use "the power of Watson to understand that
consumer and make sure what we're putting in front of them is
timely and relevant," she said.
OnStar Go is available in 2017 GM models, effective immediately,
and will be in more than two million GM vehicles equipped with
so-called 4G connections by the end of 2017. There is no extra
charge beyond the monthly subscription fee.
The GM-IBM partnership comes as the auto industry is facing the
challenge of bringing digital communications into cars. Consumers
have complained about glitchy or hard-to-use user interfaces. On
Monday, Consumer Reports withdrew its buy recommendation on the
Honda Civic -- long a favorite of the influential publication --
largely because of owner complaints about the car's revamped
infotainment system.
At the same time, tech giants including Apple Inc. and Alphabet
Inc.'s Google have introduced systems that connect with their
smartphone operating systems from inside cars. GM lets drivers use
Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto, but won't share
information about the car, such as tire pressure, with those
systems.
The trick for GM and IBM will be to develop features that can't
be easily replicated by the tech companies, said Gartner Inc.
analyst Mike Ramsey. For example, GM and IBM tout OnStar Go's
ability to combine the system's knowledge of a driver's purchases
at a favorite coffee shop and the outdoor temperature to offer a
seasonally appropriate drink from a nearby shop.
GM infotainment chief Phil Abram said that, behind the wheel, it
is safer and more useful to conduct commerce through a car rather
than a smartphone. But he acknowledged that GM is most interested
in developing features that relate specifically to the state of the
vehicle because that is information an app provider won't have.
Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 25, 2016 18:04 ET (22:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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