Chinese SUV maker Great Wall Motor appears set to become the first automaker to adopt Beijing-based Baidu’s artificial intelligence (AI) software in its vehicles which enables communication between driver and vehicle.

GWM, based in Baoding in China’s Hebei province, said it had worked with Baidu to develop vehicles featuring the search engine giant’s chatbot system known as Ernie Bot, which is often compared with Microsoft’s ChatGPT.

GWM wants to lead the connected vehicle segment by installing Earnie Bot to make its vehicles more intelligent and user friendly. The company said in a statement “several innovative features have been tested in a number of mass-produced models. They will be gradually put into commercial production”.

Ernie Bot also offers journey planning, in-car entertainment and generates images based on text inputs.

Baidu said other Chinese automakers, including Lynk and Smart, also plan to produce vehicles featuring Ernie Bot technology as well as its own electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary Jidu Auto, which plans production in late 2023. Uber also revealed recently it was developing a ChatGPT-like AI bot to integrate into its app.