Ford’s New AI Assistant Can Answer Questions About Your Vehicle

Ford is rolling out a new AI-powered assistant to its Ford and Lincoln mobile apps, functioning as a chatbot that can answer questions about the vehicle’s capabilities, service needs, and live telemetry data such as fuel levels and tire pressure. The assistant is linked to the customer’s vehicle, so it knows specific details like cargo capacity and towing ability. By 2027, Ford plans to offer a voice-powered assistant inside vehicles themselves, but for now it’s app-based. The company has not disclosed which AI developers it’s working with, aiming to be chatbot-agnostic, but as a stopgap it will integrate Google’s Gemini as an opt-in alternative to Google Assistant. Ford’s Android-based Digital Experiences will feature Gemini for navigation, messaging, and media. The assistant is being rolled out in waves to 8 million owners of Ford and Lincoln vehicles. It will be free to use initially, though Ford hasn’t confirmed if that will continue once it’s in the vehicle’s operating system. Ford’s president of integrated services, Mike Aragon, highlighted that an app-first approach allows instant upgrades without buying a new vehicle. The assistant can also answer questions from the owner’s manual and even process uploaded images to check vehicle capability. Ford envisions the assistant eventually merging vehicle-specific requests with infotainment queries, allowing customisation.