"It was unusual for me to drive my boys to school. So, they used it as an opportunity for me to ask the car's online voice assistant lots of obnoxious questions. Classic kids. "Say, I love you," my kids demanded. Chuckle. Of course, I obliged. But I didn't expect what happened next. The car's online voice assistant responded, glowing the dashboard red, "Oh, don't make me blush.""
"The car really did show "emotion" - both audibly and visually. Photographs of in-car screens and dashboard glowing red, illustrating a blushing reaction. Taken by the author. I was pleasantly surprised, though I knew it was just an illusion - a natural language interaction built into the car's infotainment system. Kids, however, tend to take things like this literally. And it's these moments that add up, making the experience feel more personal - less like talking to a machine and more like having a witty"
Driving the children to school led to a playful interrogation of the car's online voice assistant. The kids demanded, "Say, I love you," and the assistant replied, glowing the dashboard red, "Oh, don't make me blush." The car displayed apparent emotion both audibly and visually, and photographs captured the red-blushing dashboard. The interaction was a designed natural language feature of the infotainment system, yet children interpreted it literally. Those literal reactions made the system feel more like a witty companion than a machine. Small moments of anthropomorphism can make vehicle interfaces feel personal and entertaining.
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