Mercedes showcases interactive technologies present and future
Fri, 10 Jan 2014
In an age when luxury was all about sheltering the fortunate from the world around them, companies like Mercedes-Benz were satisfied simply to coddle their drivers and passengers in cocoons of leather and wood. But as luxury car buyers increasingly expect their vehicles to connect them with the world around them, Mercedes is increasingly investing in information and entertainment systems that make navigating the world that much easier. It is those technologies which Mercedes had to showcase this year at CES in Las Vegas.
Among those technologies on display at the Mercedes stand was the smartwatch application which the German automaker has developed together with Pebble. The Digital DriveStyle app networks with the vehicle and the driver's iPhone to enable control of the navigation and entertainment systems right from the wearer's wrist, while enabling easy activation of Siri voice command system at the touch of a button.
Mercedes was also keen to showcase its latest Predictive User Experience system that previews how occupants will interact with their vehicle in the future. The systems take into account parameters like weather, time and date together with the driver's ever-evolving usage history to offer suggestions on where the driver would like to go and how he or she should best get there.
It all goes beyond the simple function of transportation and turns the automobile into an advanced transportation device that still coddles the occupants in the height of luxury, but provides the ultimate luxury of reaching your destination without missing a beat. Scope out the pair of press releases below for more information.
Mercedes-Benz redefines device integration and remote convenience
Dec 20, 2013
Intelligent connectivity: At CES Mercedes-Benz gives a glimpse of the future
- Mercedes-Benz announces strategic partnership with Pebble Technology
- Wearable device integration: enhanced vehicle diagnostic awareness and multisensory notifications
Stuttgart, Germany. Mercedes-Benz has announced a strategic partnership with Pebble Technology in the run-up to the 2014 International CES, the largest consumer electronics show in the world. These invaluable partnership gives Mercedes-Benz early access to some of the newest hardware and early releases of application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by the Silicon Valley-based company, allowing it to develop innovative integrated applications that pave the way for the future of in-vehicle use cases.
At its CES booth, Mercedes-Benz will demonstrate how an intelligently networked vehicle becomes a part of the "internet of things" - and what benefits this can have for the customer. For this proof of concept, the developers at Mercedes have reinvented the Digital DriveStyle app in order to allow it to communicate with Pebble smart watches.
Pebble: connect yourself to your car and never miss a beat
Pebble's smart watch acts as a "second screen" for your smartphone. This revolutionary wearable device unlocks some interesting features for the connected car. For example, when away from their vehicle, Mercedes-Benz drivers can review important vehicle information at a glance like fuel level, door-lock status, and vehicle location using their Pebble smart watch, even when they are outside the vehicle. When hopping into their car, the companion Pebble smart watch app magically transforms, alerting its driver to real-time hazards through V2V technology like accidents, road construction, or stalled vehicles by vibrating the watch. On top of this, users pairing their Pebble smart watch can customize the three watch buttons to activate their favourite Digital DriveStyle features like reporting hazards, auto-routing, Siri activation, remote-controlling media, or quickly showing nearby traffic conditions.
At the heart of innovation: Mercedes-Benz in Silicon Valley
Mercedes-Benz recognized 20 years ago that not just IT history but also the future of the automobile was being written in Silicon Valley, and was the first ever automobile manufacturer to open its own research facility at the home of innovation. In addition to creativity and invention, Silicon Valley mainly stands out on account of its unique culture of collaboration, involving short distances, networking, innovation and informal meetings. The physical proximity to companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook, as well as small, creative start-ups, allows Mercedes-Benz to integrate innovations into its vehicles quickly and in close cooperation with its partners, as well as to keep pace with the world of consumer electronics in terms of development cycles. The newly announced strategic partnership with Pebble Technology is further example of this culture of collaboration.
Interactive Prototype: Predictive User Experience
At CES in 2012, Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, said "We're working on a new generation of vehicles that truly serve as digital companions. They learn your habits, adapt to your choices, predict your moves, and interact with your social network." This was a promise that Mercedes-Benz would become a leader in creating vehicles that, once again, redefines what it means to be an automobile. This year, we will show you how we are delivering on that promise.
Our booth this year sets the stage for the future. You can see hints of our vision in our TODAY kiosks, presenting in a new light the Mercedes-Benz services you are already familiar with. The concept grows with our TOMORROW kiosks, a sneak peak at how your Mercedes-Benz vehicle will deliver intelligent services coming out in the near future, which includes our interactive predictive user experience prototype.
See how it comes to life in our stunning Concept S-Class Coupé, a car that beautifully realizes our design philosophy of Sensual Purity as an expression of modern luxury from the inside out, from the gleaming exterior to the stunning interior, including the digital experience. The all-digital dual-screen system is visually exciting, with a bold new design direction that complements the rest of the car, and intellectually stimulating, by providing a simple interface to a powerful, real-time, predictive engine.
The contextually intelligent predictive engine is continuously learning about you to custom tailor a completely unique in-vehicle experience. By analyzing your behavior, the car becomes aware of your schedule, tastes, moods, and emotions, transforming "the best driving experience" to "an old friend" who knows you and you learn to trust. This relationship moves with you across any Mercedes-Benz vehicle that you travel with.
This prototype is an interactive exploration of how such a system could work. By taking into account the driver's starting location, the weather, day of the week, time of day, and who's in the car, the predictive system generates a set of options based on historical data. The driver could choose to accept these proposals which significantly reduces opportunities for distraction and frustration, and over time these proposals get better, more accurate, and more personalized.
The interactive prototype allows you to play with some of the variables that influence predictions so you can see how it might respond in real-time. Move the location of the car, change the weather, day of the week, time of day, and who's in the car. These inputs trigger predictions from the system, while the dual-screens of the new S-Class Coupé shows what the in-car experience might be like with a simple representation of the top predictions based on what the system has learned.
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Mercedes-Benz at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show: The Future Starts Now
Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan 07, 2014
- Digital preview of the new C-Class
- On the road to accident-free driving - Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive
- Three world premieres: Nest integration, Pebble support and Google+
- Look ahead to forthcoming Mercedes-Benz connectivity features
Las Vegas, Nevada. Exclusively for visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES, January 7 – 10, 2014) Mercedes-Benz is taking an unconventional approach to showing the new C-Class. An augmented reality app brings the car to life on the show stand, providing visitors with a digital preview of the vehicle prior to its world premiere at the Detroit Motor Show.
The CES is the world's most renowned and foremost show for entertainment electronics. Starting tomorrow in the North Hall, Mercedes-Benz will provide the fascinated industry audience with a comprehensive insight into current development projects and innovative technologies.
"Everyone is talking about autonomous driving functions - we already have them in series production. Many people want to use the latest communications capabilities in their car – for us, this has long been reality with 'digital drive style', be it with COMAND Online or via the Digital DriveStyle app," says Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, Management Board Member of Daimler AG responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development. "Mercedes-Benz vehicles offer the highest possible levels of safety with maximum comfort. They are intelligently connected and well on the way to becoming digital, automotive companions."
C-E-S@CES: The Mercedes-Benz Show Stand in Las Vegas
Alongside the virtual C-Class, Mercedes-Benz is also presenting the E and the S-Class in real life at the CES. Thanks to the high rate of innovation at Mercedes-Benz, all three vehicles are bristling with driver assistance systems right through to partly autonomous driving functions like DISTRONIC PLUS with Steering Assist and Stop&Go Pilot. Mercedes-Benz calls this innovative combination of comfort and safety systems "Intelligent Drive". With the aid of a comprehensive package of technologies, including stereo camera and multi-stage radar sensors, partly autonomous driving is today already a reality for Mercedes customers.
On the first day of the show, Mercedes-Benz is showcasing another vehicle highlight on the stand - the Concept S-Class Coupé. Its particularly impressive interior comes with a fully digital instrument panel and innovative operating concept. For instance, driver and passengers in the Concept S-Class Coupé no longer have to waste time searching through their digital music libraries. MoodGrid software, integrated into the vehicle in cooperation with Gracenote, compiles a selection from around 18 million songs in the cloud. This selection is designed specifically to suit the chosen mood and the individual taste of those listening.
Today, Tomorrow and the Day After – Insights into Telematics and Infotainment at Mercedes-Benz
Alongside real and virtual vehicles, the Mercedes-Benz show stand also offers insights into the world of telematics and infotainment. Visitors can enjoy an overview of current Mercedes-Benz apps and test the Digital DriveStyle app complete with car-to-x technology. Mercedes-Benz development engineers are also demonstrating how "wearable devices" like Google Glass or intelligent watches like the Pebble smart watch can be integrated into the vehicle telematics system to provide the customer with added value. Mercedes-Benz is also demonstrating how, in future, relevant vehicle data could be accessed conveniently from home via Vehicle Home.
With the "Predictive User Experience" prototype, Mercedes-Benz offers a look ahead to the revolutionary telematics and infotainment system of the future. Starting tomorrow on the Mercedes-Benz stand at the CES in Las Vegas, you can find out all about the innovations that will turn the vehicle of the future into an intelligent, automotive companion, how it will be able to recognize the desires, moods and preferences of driver and passengers and proactively predict and simplify the next operating steps. For more information go to: http://ces.mercedes-pressevents.com
Three World Premieres at the CES Show a High Pace of Innovation
Mercedes-Benz recently announced partnerships with Pepple Technology and Nest Labs. These alliances give Mercedes-Benz developers access to the latest hardware and application programming interfaces (APIs) from the two Silicon Valley based start-ups to create unique automotive experiences.
Mercedes-Benz will demonstrate information sharing and interactive communication between vehicle and Pebble smart watch. Thanks to the flow of information between vehicle and the smart watch, consumers who are away from their vehicles, will be able to glance at Pebble smart watch to review vehicle information. When hopping into their vehicle, Pebble smart watch will vibrate when vehicle needs to communicate to consumers certain alerts. These features will be released in spring of 2014 as part of Digital DriveStyle app.
Another world premiere is a partnership with Nest Labs to demonstrate a concept of connecting Mercedes-Benz vehicles to the Nest Learning Thermostat using Nest's web APIs. Mercedes-Benz and Nest are demonstrating how this solution makes life easier and more convenient. The vehicle will interact with the Nest Thermostat so that your home will be at a comfortable temperature upon your arrival. With such intelligent links between the consumer's home and vehicle, Mercedes-Benz is creating a new interactive experience to increase convenience for its drivers with the planned release in spring of 2014 as part of Digital DriveStyle app.
At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Mercedes-Benz and Google announced a partnership to bring Google services to Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The next phase of this partnership will be previewed at CES 2014 with the introduction of Google+ support in the award winning Digital DriveStyle app. Google+ support will be available in all vehicles fitted with the Drive Kit Plus hardware module, and will allow drivers to share updates to Google+, and review their Google+ streams both on screen and via text-to-speech. Mercedes-Benz is the world's first automotive manufacturer to bring Google+ to their vehicles, with market availability expected on iOS in spring 2014.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class is "Best-Connected Vehicle of 2013"
Readers of German publications AUTO BILD and COMPUTER BILD have spoken: The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the "Best-Connected Vehicle of 2013" according to the results of the reader poll conducted jointly by both magazines for the "Connected Car Award". Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive took first place in the "Best Driver Assistance System Safety" category. The "Connected Car Awards" will be presented today at the CES to Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, who will accept the awards on the Mercedes-Benz show stand.
Mercedes-Benz Honored as "Global Technology Innovator 2013"
Mercedes-Benz is also being honored with the Plus X Award "Global Technology Innovator 2013". The recipient is chosen by a jury of experts and prominent figures from across 25 industries. Mercedes-Benz is receiving the Plus X Award for the Bertha Benz drive it undertook in summer of last year. The jury praised the first autonomous city and cross-country road trip with a Mercedes-Benz S-Class equipped with close-to-production technology as a "milestone that showed the future of mobility, thus making it tangible."
By Noah Joseph