The connected car experience just got a bump in its offerings courtesy of Mercedes-Benz.
Through the luxury brand’s new 2016 and 2017 models, consumers will have the ability to issue voice commands to the car through Google Home or Amazon Echo. Mercedes-Benz just announced this new offering and will be rolling it out in Europe later in 2017. Owners will have the ability to send a series of voice commands such as “Alexa, start my car” and “Alexa, send this address to my car.”
To enable this new voice offering, Mercedes-Benz owners will need to activate a “Mercedes me” account and subscribe to “mbrace” to gain access to these connected car services in addition to having either a Google Home or Amazon Echo system.
Mercedes-Benz’s head of internet of things and wearable integration, Nils Schanz, commented on what this new voice feature will hope to accomplish for its consumers. He said, “We want to offer our customers a broad range of services 24/7, not just when they are in our cars. Mercedes-Benz’s goal is creating an intelligent ecosystem around cars and developing cutting-edge technology to make everyday life more convenient for our customers.”
This isn’t the only connected car announcement made by the auto industry. BMW, Ford and Genesis have made similar announcements earlier this year of integrating Amazon Alexa and Echo connectivity into their car offerings.
As the arena of smart devices and services continues to expand, it’s likely that we’ll see additional auto manufacturers follow suit.
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