A view of Mercedes Benz at The Hollywood Reporter's Annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast in Los Angeles at Milk Studios on December 7, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo : Jesse Grant/Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter )
Mercedes-Benz has announced that their vehicles will soon be integrated with Google Assistant, the voice-activated digital personal assistant from Google Home. Starting next year, car owners will able to interact with their cars from the comforts of their homes.
The German car manufacturer and the search engine giant have declared their partnership to let Mercedes-Benz car owners talk to their cars. By 2017, owners can send their destination to the car, activate the heating or cooling system, and check the fuel or battery charge level, among other things. Vehicle owners can even use Google Home to check and lock the car doors.
"In the last decade, we've seen a range of benefits when smart technology is combined with transportation," Daimler Vice President of Digital Vehicle and Mobility Sajjad Khan said in a statement, posted on PR Newswire. "This newest integration shows just how intelligent the car of the future will be, and we plan to roll out more applications as the year progresses that will make daily life even more accessible and convenient."
The said partnership is a part of the vehicle manufacturer's vision of bringing artificial intelligence to its customers, learning their wants and needs, which would make the car more efficient. Like the onboard adaptive infotainment system that instead of the owner setting up the navigation, music and heating or air conditioning options, the AI would suggest top three possibilities and display them on the center console screen.
Slash Gear was among the lucky ones able to witness the upcoming offering first-hand. First, the "Ok Google" command must be issued followed by "Let me talk to my Mercedes." The device then loads the digital assistant, which would be able to recognize several vehicle-related requests like locked doors, current mileage and the next service due date. The virtual personal assistant used on Mercedes-Benz cars has a different voice than the one familiar to Google users.
The Mercedes-Benz offering is similar to that of General Motors' Onstar RemoteLink and Tesla's Remote S systems. Owners of the said vehicles can interact with their cars via their own smartphones.
In the meantime, Mercedes-Benz has not yet specified on which vehicles the Google Assistant technology will be made available, but the company is one of the first Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to integrate the Google Assistant on Google Home with their vehicles.
