Google brings Gemini Personal Intelligence to Android Auto

In the coming months, the feature will also roll out to cars with Google built-in.

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

At the start of the year, Google debuted Personal Intelligence, a Gemini feature that allows the chatbot to pull information from your other Google apps to generate more personalized responses. An expansion in March brought Personal Intelligence to free accounts after it was previously only available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. And now Google has begun rolling out the feature to Android Auto users.

In practice, the company says today's update will improve Gemini's reasoning capabilities in cars. It will also make the assistant capable of delivering more specific details as they relate to your questions and prompts. For example, if you're driving to the airport, Google suggests Gemini with Personal Intelligence will be able to answer questions like "what's my flight gate?" and "is my flight on time?" Provided you've linked your Gmail account, it can do all this without you needing to pull over to find a confirmation email.

More broadly, Google says Personal Intelligence makes it easier to interact with Gemini more naturally. For instance, if you need directions to your doctor's office, you can just say "take me to my doctor's appointment," instead of speaking a specific address. Recommendations are also improved. If you're in a new city, Google suggests you can ask for dinner spots along your driving route and Gemini will generate suggestions while factoring in preferences and restrictions, like if you're a vegetarian.

As before, enabling Personal Intelligence is optional, and you can turn it off at any point if you don't want Gemini pulling your data. You can also control what apps Gemini can access. Google is starting to roll out Personal Intelligence to Android Auto users globally starting today (with the exception of those living in Switzerland, the European Economic Area, UK and Nigeria). In the coming months, the company plans to bring the feature to cars with Google built-in too.