General Motors has begun rolling Google Gemini into its Cadillac and Corvette models across Australia and New Zealand, with the switch starting today. It runs inside the car’s existing infotainment system and replaces the older Google Assistant on any vehicle with Google built-in.
This is the next step in GM’s in-vehicle voice assistant, and the headline change is contextual awareness. Gemini understands what you said three sentences ago, so you stop talking to your car like it’s a phone tree.
The pitch is that you speak naturally. No memorising commands, no repeating yourself, no rigid syntax. Ask for music that suits your mood or the length of your trip, and it sorts it out.
The clearest improvement is that Gemini handles a whole chain of requests in one flow. You can say “take me to the nearest post office, and add a stop for good coffee along the way,” then refine it with “any decent lunch spots on my route, under a three-kilometre detour,” then shift to “play something motivating,” without ever resetting.
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That sounds small until you’ve spent years shouting single rigid commands at a dashboard and getting “I didn’t catch that” in return.
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The golf example that shows what’s actually changed
This is where it stops being a gimmick. You can ask Gemini for a highly-rated coffee shop with outdoor seating on your route, or an EV charger that matches your plug type, and get live traffic and directions just by talking.
GM’s own examples lean into the specificity. You can tell it you have three stops and need to finish the day with at least half a tank, then ask it to find the cheapest fuel along the way.
There’s a genuinely funny golf example in the release where a self-described terrible golfer asks for nearby courses with a low slope and a decent price, then asks Gemini to explain what slope even means and compare a couple of options. It shows the assistant following a tangent and answering a follow-up instead of dumping you back to the start.
Entertainment gets the same treatment. Gemini taps your in-car apps, so Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, Audible, HBO Max and Prime Video are all in play. It can build a three-hour road trip playlist that works for you and the kids, suggest a podcast that fits the carpool wait, or stream a quick show while you’re parked. Select Cadillac models also get Dolby Atmos, so you can ask for the newest tracks in Atmos and get the immersive mix.
Then there’s Gemini Live. Say “Hey Google, let’s talk” and you open a continuous conversation rather than a one-shot command. GM frames it as using the drive as thinking time, whether that’s brainstorming a warm-weather family holiday without a long flight, prepping for a conversation with your boss about a promotion, or running a kid through photosynthesis before a test.
Messaging rounds it out. Gemini can summarise and read your incoming texts so you reply with context, and it’ll draft, edit, or translate on command. Tell it to message Anna that you’re bringing dessert and add a cupcake emoji, and it does exactly that.
GM beat the Germans to the good stuff
Gemini is landing on model year 2025 and newer Cadillacs, and 2026 and newer Corvettes, provided they have Google built-in. The rollout runs over several months, and your car will flag it on the infotainment screen when it’s ready.
To switch it on you need an active Connected Services trial or subscription, a Google account you’re signed into, a supported assistant language, and you have to opt in. Support starts with sixteen languages and expands from there, and GM says the update will reach more of its range over time.
The bigger read is where the cabin is heading. The voice assistant has gone from a button you press to set a destination to the thing you talk to for the length of a drive, and GM getting Gemini into Australian Cadillacs and Corvettes before most rivals have shipped anything this capable is a real lead.
Whether it holds up in practice, or just becomes a smarter way to take your attention off the road, is the question. We’ll have a verdict the next time one lands in the driveway.
