You Probably Don’t Know That AI Is Already Making Your Commute Safer

Artificial intelligence isn’t new, and it’s getting smarter every day. The auto industry has been using AI for years, enabling new infotainment functionalities. Next-generation cars go even further, making your car a safer, more customizable 5,000 pounds of sheet metal and electronics.

“I don’t think that everyone really understands how much we’re using AI already today,” Steven Jenkins, vice president of technology strategy at Magna International, told Newsweek. “The way that things are presented to us, the ways that we’re getting information presented to us on our phones and other devices, we’re already using a lot of AI today.”

AI use in automobiles is not restricted to the technology that drivers and passengers consciously interact with. “You can basically take all the data you have access to and then start to make conclusions from it using AI,” Jenkins said.

On the backend, AI technology is able to customize your experience behind the wheel. Several companies, including Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, already use this technology.

“Volkswagen is using AI in a number of ways to help our customers, both from the perspective of seamless interaction with the user interface in the car and in how the myVW mobile app trades information between customers and the vehicle,” said Rachael Zaluzec, senior vice president of customer experience and brand marketing at Volkswagen of America. “The aim is always to enhance the user experience, and ChatGPT allows a customer to discover information without having to take your eyes off the road or your hands off the wheel, thanks to our voice assistance technology.”

The driver journey with AI-enhanced technology can begin before they even set foot in the vehicle. For a daily commuter, it may mean that their vehicle brand’s app prompts them to precondition their car (turn on heat/cooling, warm the battery pack) for use at 6:30 a.m. Monday through Friday knowing that they leave for their commute at 7 a.m.

Then, when the driver enters the car, the vehicle is already the temperature they prefer, the seat is in their personal position (no matter who was the last driver) and a prompt is shown on the navigation screen asking if the driver is ready to route to their work address.

AI can also customize your drive experience to tailor safety technologies to your driving style, all while keeping you safely on the road.

“You can use the AI system to improve your feeling of getting in the car, and everything just works the way you want it to. It can learn the way that you hold the steering wheel or pull to the left or the right, or the way you brake intentionally or unintentionally,” Jenkins said.

Take lane-centering advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) technology, for example. “The system will try to center itself in the lane. But, humans don’t behave like that. If they’re on a small road, they generally want to be away from the center lane, and if you’re on a larger road, you maybe stay to the opposite side. AI can learn from people’s behavior—programmers don’t have to write rules for that behavior during software development,” he said.

AI is also working to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe from cars. “AI can have more context on the situations you get yourself into. Today, if you’re using a system trained for pedestrian detection and you would have pedestrians standing by the side of the road, the system wouldn’t know what they’re intending to do. It might just think there’s a pedestrian standing on the edge of the road,” Jenkins said.

With AI, context can be added to the software process. AI technologies are able to overlay road mapping with landmarks such as bus stops, school zones, crosswalks and designated pedestrian areas.

Jenkins added, “That’s something AI is really good at understanding.”