The thick owner’s manual buried somewhere in the glovebox may finally have met its natural predator: artificial intelligence. Ford now wants an AI assistant that knows your car, explains what is wrong, and eventually lives in the dashboard like a virtual mechanic.
There is just one awkward comparison. Chinese premium EV brand NIO’s little round-headed NOMI is already sitting there on your dashboard, watching you with blinking eyes.
Connected-car information
Ford is rolling out an AI Assistant that can answer questions about a specific vehicle and combine the owner’s manual with connected-car information such as tire pressure, oil life, battery or fuel level, and warning messages.
For now, however, Ford owners still have to pull out their smartphone and type the question into the Ford or Lincoln app. Ford plans to move the assistant directly into selected cars from 2027.
NIO is already much closer to that vision. NOMI is built into the car, responds to spoken commands, and can operate functions such as climate control, windows, mirrors, navigation, and seat settings.
Since 2024, European NIOs have also gained GPT-powered vehicle knowledge, allowing drivers to ask how specific functions work or how to check tire pressure.
So Ford is not inventing the AI owner’s manual. What it shows is how quickly the rest of the industry is catching up with a much bigger idea: the car itself becoming the interface between driver, manual, diagnostics, and, eventually, even the workshop.
The real change
That points toward the real change. The first wave of ChatGPT in cars was often a party trick. Ask who painted the Mona Lisa, and the dashboard knew. Ask why your car had suddenly lost 15% of its expected range, and things became less impressive.
Now the AI is beginning to know the machine it lives in.
That could not only make the owner’s manual disappear, but also much of today’s menu structure. Instead of digging through five touchscreen layers to find trailer mode, the driver simply asks for it.
Perhaps the killer application will be even less sophisticated: “Switch off all the f***ing warning sounds you’re allowed to.”
European regulations will prevent some safety systems from being permanently silenced, but an assistant with direct access to vehicle functions could at least save drivers from having to repeat the same menu ritual after every start.
From assistant to mechanic
Troubleshooting is where things get really interesting. An EV experiencing unexpectedly high consumption could analyze outside temperature, tire pressure, battery condition, and recent driving, and explain that nothing is broken. Cold weather and soft tires are simply eating range.
Or it might notice something genuinely abnormal. Combine vibration sensors, wheel-speed data, diagnostic information, and maintenance history, and tomorrow’s assistant could tell you that a wheel bearing deserves attention before you can even hear it.
At that point, AI has stopped being an owner’s manual and started becoming a virtual mechanic. And probably a salesman too.
The same assistant could book a service appointment, order wiper blades, recommend a charging subscription, or offer a paid software upgrade. Carmakers will eventually have to convince drivers that the friendly voice serves them, not the marketing department.
Again, NIO provides a glimpse of where this could go. Its newer NOMI Agents architecture is explicitly intended to move from a “passive function” toward “proactive intelligence.”
NIO has demonstrated concepts, including parking reservation and after-sales services through NOMI, although the newer Banyan 3 rollout began in China rather than Europe.
The logical endpoint is an AI co-driver that solves problems before being asked. Heading from Brussels to Milan with a trailer? It could find charging stations where the combination actually fits, avoid underground car parks, and warn that your hotel has no suitable parking.
Cars already detect driver fatigue. A smarter assistant could turn today’s coffee-cup symbol into an actual conversation: “You’ve been driving for three hours, your attention is dropping, and there’s a decent coffee stop six kilometers ahead. Shall I take you there?”
The next battle
Autonomous driving will make the relationship stranger still. Eventually, we may ask the AI not how the car works, but why the car itself made a decision. Why this route? Why no overtaking? Why did it stop charging at 83%?
Accuracy and cybersecurity will then matter enormously. A hallucinated restaurant recommendation is annoying. A hallucinated explanation of a braking fault is something else.
But the direction is clear. Carmakers once fought over horsepower, then screen size. The next battle may be over who builds the smartest intelligence between driver and machine.
The owner’s manual probably will not disappear completely. It may simply become something nobody reads because NOMI, Ford’s AI, or whatever comes next, has learned to read it for us.
