ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Personal Intelligence for Gemini is now in Android Auto.
- It lets Gemini access information from your Google apps.
- It’s opt-in, and you can stop it at any time.
Earlier this year, Google introduced the Personal Intelligence feature for Gemini, which gives the AI assistant access to your photos, Gmail, and other sources of information for more customized responses.
Now it’s available in your car.
Google announced on Tuesday that Personal Intelligence will be coming to Android Auto. Instead of giving generic answers, Gemini can now tailor things to your specific calendar events, appointments, Search history, and even your Photos.
I tried the standard Personal Intelligence several months ago — it was a little unsettling exactly how much it knew about me. It was able to help me shop for car tires, knew my specific vehicle from pictures in my Photos account and insurance emails, and even helped me shop for specific clothing (complete with size) based on receipts it found in my Gmail.
Also: Gemini on Android Auto can access my photos, emails, and calendar now
Personal Intelligence makes driving a breeze
I started with an example I had seen Google advertise: pulling up a parking pass for an upcoming event and navigating to the destination. I have tickets to my alma mater’s football game this weekend, so I asked Gemini to “Find the parking pass for my game this weekend and take me there.” Gemini took a few seconds to fetch the .pdf file from my email, found the address to the specific deck I needed to go to, and started Maps navigation. It took less than 10 seconds total.
Also:This powerful Gemini setting made my AI results way more personal and accurate
I tried a similar task by asking Gemini to “Take me to my daughter’s dentist appointment.” Gemini quickly found a confirmation email and started navigation. I had read that the assistant has the ability to pick up from previous conversations, so I tried that here. Before I left the house, I asked Gemini for a list of the best coffee shops near my kid’s appointment. After the appointment, I asked Gemini in my car to navigate to the closest coffee shop from that list, and it did so.
Since Personal Intelligence has access to Photos, I tried to give it a tricky assignment: “Navigate to that pumpkin patch I went to with my family last fall. There should be pictures in my Photos.” After thinking for a few seconds, it fired up navigation to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch we visit every year.
For every “find this and navigate” task I tried, Personal Intelligence responded perfectly. My only complaint is that it never confirmed the destination. The AI chose right every time, but if it had picked the wrong place and I blindly followed its suggestion, it would have ruined my trip.
What Personal Intelligence can’t do
An important distinction: Personal Intelligence only works with Google Workspace apps. It doesn’t have access to your text messages, even if you’re using Messages as your texting app. It can write a text or respond to one you’ve received, but it doesn’t have the ability to pull information from those texts to handle other tasks.
Also: I took Android Auto offline for my last road trip – it was surprisingly useful
If you haven’t already, you will have to enable Personal Intelligence and choose what you want to share. Go to gemini.google.com > Settings > Personal Intelligence. From there, pick what you want the AI to access.
