3min chapter

Bloomberg Businessweek cover image

US Bank Earnings, Tesla Robotaxi

Bloomberg Businessweek

CHAPTER

Exploring Autonomous Vehicles and the Future of Travel Booking with AI

This chapter explores the progress of autonomous vehicle technology and its challenges, including regulatory needs and corporate sustainability. Additionally, it introduces Penny Voice, an AI chatbot aimed at improving the travel planning and booking process through real-time interaction.

00:00
Speaker 1
Yeah,
Speaker 4
you would still need fleet management. And again, how far away is that? I know in my own mind, how ready am I to walk out of an airport terminal and get in something without pedals and a steering wheel to go 45 minutes into the city? And that's after that I'm convinced that it's safe, that the regulatory environment is favorable, that the companies can stay in business because the technology is profitable. So again, I think that timeline is way longer than it's priced in for some of the stocks right now, because I don't think it's around the corner. All
Speaker 3
right, Kevin, really great to speak with you. Of course, all things cars and what's going on in the world of cars. That is Kevin Tynan. He is director of research over at the Presidio Group, joining us from Princeton, New Jersey. I miss you, bro. We have a real treat now. We're going to speak to Brett Keller. He is the CEO of Joining at Priceline. Matt, we already spoke to Brett today at 1030 a.m. and it was so good. We said, please let us anchor radio. We want to talk to Brett again. So we're going to do that right now. Brett, great to speak with you again. We really appreciate you being so generous with your time. Talk to us about the launch of Penny Voice, of course. Penny, it's this AI chatbot, is my understanding, that launched in June 2023. It helps you book travel. Penny Voice is the next evolution of Penny. Explain to our listeners exactly what Penny Voice is designed to do. Sure.
Speaker 7
Well, Penny is integrated across all of our user experiences, and a consumer can come in, and as they're either planning a trip, booking a trip, or looking to service their trip, they can engage with and activate our Gen AI chatbot. And over the last year, our consumers have been chatting back and forth with her to address a number of different needs. Just within the last week, we announced a new partnership with OpenAI. We're one of the first brands in the world to connect to their new real-time voice API, which enables conversations in real-time, as opposed to talking to a bot, which then translates into text and back and forth, which really slows down the experience. This enables a consumer to have a real conversation. You can interrupt Penny mid-flow. You can ask her more challenging questions, and she's able to help you do a number of things. So trip planning, for example, you need ideas about a trip you want to take to a location you've never been. You're going to Japan. You want to learn some of the things that you want to do in a specific city or even what cities to visit. She can help you with that. When it comes to booking a hotel, she can answer questions about the specific type of hotel you're looking at or one that you're interested in. And once you've booked your trip, she can even help you service it. For example, if you want to cancel it or make a reservation change, she can walk you through that flow. And if she can't help you, she can quickly hand you off to a live agent who can deal with the more complex scenarios.

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