US: Now talk to your Mercedes with Google's virtual assistant

Mercedes-Benz has introduced virtual assistant compatibility in its range of cars in the United States, allowing owners to control various functions of their car through in-house virtual assistants like Google Home or Amazon's Alexa. The said feature has been added on cars that were manufactured in 2016 and 2017 and is currently available only in the US. However, Mercedes is aiming to spread this functionality to European and Asian markets in the future.

The automaker has currently introduced phase 1 of the said service. To leverage the voice assistant features, Mercedes owners in the US need to download Google Home or Amazon Alexa apps on their smartphone and connect it with their Mercedes Me accounts. Mercedes Me is a platform that allows Mercedes owners to control their cars through a smartphone app. Once the virtual assistant is paired to the customer's Mercedes Me account, they can control various functions of the car through voice commands.

Currently, using the said virtual assistants, an owner can start the car remotely, check whether it is locked or not, lock the car remotely, search for destinations and send navigation info to the car's infotainment system and switch on/off the car's air conditioning system. Phase 2 of the service will be launched soon and will add more features that could be controlled through voice commands.

In the long term, Mercedes is aiming to build its own virtual assistant that will offer a wide range of features aimed at limiting driver distraction. The company hasn't decided on a specific timeline of feature list for this in-house virtual assistant yet.

Source: Automotive News