Even in a car, being able to control the windscreen wipers, radio, ask how much fuel is left are all tasks it would be useful to do conversationally.
There are some apps (im thinking of jira as an example) where i'd like to do 90% of the usage conversationally.
are you REALLY sure you want that?
how much fuel there is is a quick glance into the dash, and you can control precisely the radio volume without even looking.
'turn up the volume', 'turn down the volume a little bit', 'a bit more',...
and then a radio ad going 'get yourself a 3 pack of the new magic wipers...' and car wipers going off.
id hate conversational ui on my car.
Conversational interfaces are great for rarely used features or when the user doesn’t know how to do something. For repetitive, common tasks they’re terrible.
But nobody is using ChatGPT for repetitive tasks. In fact the whole LLM revolution seems to be about letting users accomplish tasks without having to learn how to do them. Which I know some people look down on, but it’s the literal definition of management (which, to be fair, some people also look down on).
This is a problem of standardization across manufacturers, not something inherent in physical controls. I never have a problem using the steering wheel in a rental car because they're all the same.
You'd have the same problem with voice interfaces: For some rental cars, turning on the wipers would be "Turn on the wipers". For others, you'd have to say "Activate the wipers." For others, "Enable the windshield wipers." There is no way manufacturers will be capable of standardizing on a single phrase.
I wish car manufacturers stopped with the touchscreen bullshit, but it seems more likely that they'll try to offset the terrible experience with voice controls.