Mercedes-Benz and Google join hands to develop an AI-powered conversational navigation system

Carmakers have been working on a wide range of futuristic technologies to make modern passenger vehicles' interiors more interesting. German luxury auto major Mercedes-Benz is ready to take a major leap with its new conversational navigation search system. Mercedes-Benz has joined hands with Google's Alphabet Inc. under which the future cars of the OEM will enable drivers to have natural language conversations with the MBUX Virtual Assistant to get information from Google Maps about nearby points of interest and more.

Mercedes-Benz plans to roll out this feature in the new CLA coupe. It is expected to incorporate an artificial intelligence-based virtual assistant to give directions and answer drivers’ questions. Mercedes-Benz says the new CLA coupe, which will be available in the market in late 2025, will be able to find destinations even for vague prompts, like ‘highly rated restaurants’ or 'a reliable electric vehicle charger’. The automaker believes this will make the in-car experience of its future buyers more interesting.

Mercedes-Benz plans to roll out this feature in Europe initially and add the system to US market-spec vehicles later. However, the automaker has not revealed whether this feature will be available in the Indian market-spec Mercedes-Benz cars or not. But, considering the Indian market one of the major growth enablers for the carmaker, we can expect the Mercedes-Benz cars in the country to get this feature soon after it rolls out globally.

Speaking on this system, Mercedes-Benz's CEO Ola Kallenius said that this new feature will be like Jarvis, the fictional AI assistant used by the superhero character Iron Man. “Think about that virtual assistant as your personal butler in the car to do anything and everything in the car," Kallenius said, further adding, "At Mercedes-Benz, we seek to offer our customers an exceptional digital experience. Our partnership with Google Cloud will further enhance in-car navigation, combining sophisticated location data with generative AI. Launching with the new CLA, our next-gen navigation will allow drivers and passengers to use voice commands to obtain comprehensive and personalised information within seconds."

The automaker also claims that this new system could go a step beyond the navigation-on-command services already offered in many vehicles. The MBUX Virtual Assistant of the company is claimed to have been designed to listen to the driver and use artificial intelligence to offer suggestions even without a clear prompt. The Google AI will further sharpen this.

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