Cars Shouldn’t Control Critical Safety Systems With Chatbots - CleanTechnica

The article from CleanTechnica highlights the dangers of allowing chatbots and AI voice assistants to control critical vehicle safety systems. It recounts a specific incident involving a Lynk & Co Z20, where a driver’s simple voice command to turn off the reading lights was misunderstood by the car’s AI, which then disabled all interior lighting, including headlights, on a dark highway. Because the vehicle lacked physical controls for the headlights—removed in favor of minimalist, screen-based interfaces—the driver was unable to restore lighting manually, resulting in a crash. Fortunately, no fatalities occurred, but the incident underscores the risks of granting AI systems broad control over essential vehicle functions. The article criticizes automakers for treating the vehicle’s internal control network (CAN bus) as an open system, giving voice assistants root-level access to hardware controls like headlights and wipers. This “Because We Can” approach ignores the unpredictable nature of AI, which can malfunction or misinterpret commands, potentially causing dangerous situations. It argues that autom