Photo: Toyota
There are those who stay away from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other form of social media you can think of, but not because they have better things to do with their time. No, it's because they're afraid their personal information will be used by Mark Zuckerberg & Co for taking over the world or something, and they don't like that.
It's not that they're not half-right about it, but once you own a smartphone and install one app, your "personal information" that is of any relevance to a company or state agency is already out there. Your pictures of a dinner plate or Rambo the dog? Nobody cares about those.
Well, turns out that's not entirely true. Toyota is currently on a quest to make its cars smarter, but instead of more processing power or storage space, the Japanese manufacturer wants to give its vehicles an artificial "emotional intelligence." It's the equivalent of our ability to know when a person isn't well without them saying so, to give one example.
But in order to do that, Toyota's cars will have to get to know us, and since they can't sit at a table for two hours and ask all the important questions, they'll have to resort to a bit of social media stalking. The vehicle's AI will analyze the posts you make and learn as much as possible about the person at the wheel. What food you like, what's your daily schedule, what's your favorite team, what sort of music you like - all sorts of things we never really thought would be of any interest to a car.
Armed with this information, the car can then make suggestions to the driver that will supposedly improve his experience in the car. For instance, if you set out to drive without punching a destination in the sat-nav, the car will analyze the direction you're heading and the time of day and compare them with previous journeys in an attempt to figure out where you're going.
When it thinks it knows where that is, it'll ask for confirmation, and then provide you with the best congestion-free route. It will also make parking arrangements at the destination if needed.
This all sounds like the worst nightmare for the privacy freaks, but it will all be opt-in so you'll be able to make your smart Toyota as dumb as you like. Still, Toyota Connected program's CEO Zack Hicks is optimistic about the public's reaction: "People are willing to share their data if they're going to get something that's a better value in exchange," Slash Gear quotes him saying. Well, as long as the entire Internet has access to something, we don't see the harm in allowing our cars to use the information as well. Until Skynet becomes reality.
Well, turns out that's not entirely true. Toyota is currently on a quest to make its cars smarter, but instead of more processing power or storage space, the Japanese manufacturer wants to give its vehicles an artificial "emotional intelligence." It's the equivalent of our ability to know when a person isn't well without them saying so, to give one example.
But in order to do that, Toyota's cars will have to get to know us, and since they can't sit at a table for two hours and ask all the important questions, they'll have to resort to a bit of social media stalking. The vehicle's AI will analyze the posts you make and learn as much as possible about the person at the wheel. What food you like, what's your daily schedule, what's your favorite team, what sort of music you like - all sorts of things we never really thought would be of any interest to a car.
Armed with this information, the car can then make suggestions to the driver that will supposedly improve his experience in the car. For instance, if you set out to drive without punching a destination in the sat-nav, the car will analyze the direction you're heading and the time of day and compare them with previous journeys in an attempt to figure out where you're going.
When it thinks it knows where that is, it'll ask for confirmation, and then provide you with the best congestion-free route. It will also make parking arrangements at the destination if needed.
This all sounds like the worst nightmare for the privacy freaks, but it will all be opt-in so you'll be able to make your smart Toyota as dumb as you like. Still, Toyota Connected program's CEO Zack Hicks is optimistic about the public's reaction: "People are willing to share their data if they're going to get something that's a better value in exchange," Slash Gear quotes him saying. Well, as long as the entire Internet has access to something, we don't see the harm in allowing our cars to use the information as well. Until Skynet becomes reality.
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