Fresh off of the news of Elon Musk’s new public venture Universe, which is having AI study videogames to become smarter themselves (like how Grand Theft Auto V can teach AI how to drive properly and anticipate accidents, and ideally not murder people), a Japanese automobile corporation has a new AI-centric experiment of their own.
The automaking company Honda is asking a new question for an experimental vehicle. What if cars were more like the cars in Pixar’s Cars? An inanimate object made animate. A car that can interact with you, the driver, and better yet, have its own feelings.
what if your car had feelings?
Honda has recently teased the NeuV, an automated commuter car embedded with AI “that creates new possibilities for human interaction and new value for customers.” AI with emotions. AI that can talk with you. AI that makes a car come to life, basically. The car itself is outfitted with an “emotion engine,” which coincidentally is what kicks in within my own brain whenever I watch a new episode of the hottest anime of the season, Yuri on Ice.
In the press release for the NeuV, all Honda clues in regarding its “emotion engine” is that it “enables machines to artificially generate their own emotions.” More will be revealed about this mysterious “emotion engine” at CES 2017, which kicks off January 5th in Las Vegas next year.
But for now, it’s speculation time. What does “emotion engine” even mean? Will the cars grow angry or sad when you’re low on gas? Will a NeuV get happy when you play its favorite song? Is all this ’emotions’ talk just a misleading ploy, and really only means the vehicle comes built in with E•MO•TION, the best pop album of last year? Will it develop its own secret desires to follow in Lightning McQueen’s tire tracks? Only time will tell. In the meantime, ka-chow.
Expect more news about what specific emotions the NeuV will entail at CES 2017, which starts on January 5th.
