It seems Mercedes-Benz has positioned itself well ahead of the technological curve versus most automobile manufacturers. Last week at CES 2014 in Las Vegas, Mercedes-Benz announced three big tech initiatives. But the most important announcement came later by a little company called Google.
One of those announcements involved Mercedes-Benz partnership with Nest Labs, the leader of smart home-integrated products, those being the Nest smart thermostat and smoke detector. Mercedes is planning integrating the Nest thermostat with their vehicles to create intelligent links between your car and home. Users will have an interactive experience where they can set their temperature upon arrival. This feature will be released with the Digital Drive Style App.
Mercedes-Benz also announced a partnership with Google to bring Google+, their social network; available to all vehicles utilizing the Drive Kit Plus hardware and Digital Drive Style App. Drivers will be able to share updates, view streams and text via speech to Google+ from their Mercedes-Benz.
While this was exciting news from CES for passionate Mercedes-Benz owners, Google then announced they had acquired Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. With Google purchasing one of the most promising companies to enter the smart home market, this allows Mercedes-Benz to be one of the luxury automobile leaders in the intelligent experience for all consumer products.
This will be an exciting frontier where intelligent integration exists between all aspects of the consumer experience, from incorporating social profiles and Intelligent Drive during your vehicle experience, search functionality by speech for navigation and smart home integration for all your devices before you’ve even finished your commute home. This is providing Mercedes-Benz the opportunity to extend their luxury expertise into the smart experience surrounding all consumer products. The experience will only continue to advance as Mercedes-Benz improves its autonomous driving experience that is already being built into series production vehicles and will involve all features to provide digital, automotive companions.