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."

Comments

No way

[tuo42]

No application can be as aggressively persuasive as your general car salesman!

Re:No way

[Smidge204]

"Notice: Please press 'Accept' to the agreement below within the next 59 second(s) to avoid having every photo on this device forwarded to your twitter account."

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=

Re:No way

[rwise2112]

I hope it's like this:

"Hi, I'm Malfunctioning Eddie, and I'm malfunctioning so badly, I'm practically giving these cars away!!! "

Re:No way

[OG]

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.

oh please please please

[Anonymous Coward]

can we get rid of realtors next? And the general class of human cancers known as middlemen?

Re:oh please please please

[tgd]

Yes. The Internet already does 90% of what a realtor does.

Which makes me wonder what I need them for and why I am legally required to only sell my real-estate through a realtor. They only use I can see for a realtor like person is to act as a trusted intermediary who checks buyers/sellers criminal records and verifies everything is in order before a sale is finalised (ya'know basic stuff like does he actually own or have authority to sell the house?) but unfortunately, as the system currently works in my country, they are not required by law to do either because I regularly read news of people being cheated.

If your understanding of what is involved in a real-estate transaction is so ... well "off", to be polite... I'd strongly suggest if you ever do so, use a real estate agent. In the buying and selling side, I think they provide value, but not good value at a split of 5% of a transaction. On the selling side, some do earn that with sufficient work but most don't. On the buying side, some earn it with dozens or hundreds of hours of showing houses to inexperienced buyers. As a seller I'd prefer a buyer with one because the odds are higher that the process will go smoothly.

But, at least in the US, there's no law requiring it for sale or purchase. Your might need to drop a few hundred more in lawyer fees, but the forms you need are public and easy to fill out. And, as a seller without one, you do have to understand that you're not likely to find a buyer if you're not willing to pony up the 2.5% to a buyer's agent that they would've gotten from the seller's agent if you had one.

Its a staggeringly inefficient process, but there are too many people with their fingers in the pie to ever optimize it. At least the Internet has streamlined the mortgage process and passing around documents.

Re:The answer is not the answer

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Lolwut

[korgitser]

without the hassle of having to pick up the phone

How exactly am I supposed to use the app without picking up the phone?

Re:Car salesmen

[itsdapead]

I'm not living in the american cultural sphere. Around here carsalesmen never go to their managers, they are also not aggressively pushy.

Eh? I didn't know they had car salesmen in Narnia!

Based on my last experience, we don't have car salesmen in England, either - we have financial product salesmen who push loans, hare-brained leasing deals and dubious extended warranty schemes to people who have already decided to buy the car and are (figuratively, at least) waving the cash in their face. Its pretty clear that actually selling cars has little to do with their business model.

Oh, and I have it on good authority that (as I always suspected) the "consulting my manager" theatre means "putting the kettle on in preparation for a celebratory brew" (maybe in the US it is more likely to be turning on the coffee machine)... or maybe headbutting the wall a few times if the stubborn customer has insisted on actually paying for the car, thus depriving you of the finance company commission.

I see you are trying to buy an electric car.

[tlambert]

I see you are trying to buy an electric car.

Do you want some help?

(o) Take me to the Tesla web site
( ) Flounder around with this hunk of junk
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Re:Lower prices?

[jythie]

At least until dealerships find a way to make cutting them out illegal, oh wait....

Re:Car salesmen

[OzPeter]

Based on my last experience, we don't have car salesmen in England, either - we have financial product salesmen who push loans, hare-brained leasing deals and dubious extended warranty schemes to people who have already decided to buy the car and are (figuratively, at least) waving the cash in their face. Its pretty clear that actually selling cars has little to do with their business model.

But .. but .. but .. you have totally awesome car leasing places like Ling's Cars

(Pro tip .. check out the ASCII art in the source. Yes .. ASCII art!)

Oblig

[Anonymous Coward]

"About 50% of the human race is middle-men and they don't take kindly to being eliminated."

"Salesman"?

[Konowl]

When was the last time you had to legitimately phone up a salesman to ask him a question anyways.

Last car I bought I knew the invoice price ahead of time. I picked two dealerships in different cities, emailed them my offer. When they both responded, I took the cheaper response and emailed the other dealership. Rinse and repeat. When one stopped negotiating, I then went to a third dealership with the lowest price so far.

In the end, I didn't even pick up the phone and talk to my salesman. I met him the day I picked up the car.