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Death of the Car Salesman? BMW Makes AI App To Sell Electric Cars
cartechboy writes "You thought Willy Loman had it bad. BMW is launching an artificial intelligence app allowing consumers to ask questions about its new BMW i3 electric car without the hassle of having to pick up the phone or go into a dealership. Potential customers can text a simple question about the i3 and the system builds an appropriate response in real-time using AI — interpreting words, sentiment, and context. The futuristic robo-car salesman was developed by 19-year-old entrepreneur Dmitry Aksenov and operates around the clock. No word on whether the app says, 'Wait here — I'll check with my sales manager,' like human car dealers often do."
can we get rid of realtors next? And the general class of human cancers known as middlemen?
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More seriously, traditional dealers are considered a hurdle to EV sales because they have to compete with their other inventory. Dealers may not be as knowledgeable and enthusiastic about EVs to make an effective sale. There's also a notion that, since thee majority of a dealer's profit comes from the service department, that EVs don't get pushed as aggressively because they don't need as much service.
Since selling factory direct runs afoul of many state laws here in the US, this seems like an interesting alternative... just take the human interest out of the sales pitch.
=Smidge=
Yes, but since the AI is not (or at least not yet) a culpable entity under the law. It means culpability falls on to BMW for anything the AI promises or says. So if it says yes you can drive the car from Alaska to Russia. BMW could be brought to court under the law for making false calms about it's car capabilities. Now, if a human where to say that you'd have to find some evidence to show that BMW had told it's salesmen or implied that they show make that calm. Otherwise, you could only go after the salesman for his actions.
At least until dealerships find a way to make cutting them out illegal, oh wait....
Sounds to me like a contract issue between the dealer and manufacturer (I'm guessing that terms about the opening of competing branches of the same franchise within a certain geographic area are standard for just about any type of franchise). There shouldn't be legislation about it outside of standard contract law.