A perfect match for the connected car culture at CES was Mercedez-Benz with the motto “It’s all about me,” making you the luxury car buyer the center of your connected Mercedes-Benz interface. The “me” features will be most prominent in the “E” models. The new iPhone companion app suggests locations based on previous drives. And for self-driving fans the Mercedes E-Class recently passed it’s self-driving test has a self-driving license in the state of Nevada for highway driving.
The standard-production Mercedes E-Class has most of the technology needed for self-driving testing, except it needed a few software modifications to the DRIVE PILOT control unit. Self-driving tests are permitted on all interstates and state highways in the state of Nevada.
Mercedes showed off its latest technology in the Mercedes E-Class at CES that will be fully introduced at the Detroit Auto Show, next week.
Infotainment with More Functions on Steering Wheel.
The new infotainment system for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class adds two multifunction touchpads on the left and right sides of steering wheel to scroll through menus on the instrument cluster or center stack. There are still the other Mercedes-Benz controls including voice, center touchpad and switches.
The new E-Class, Mercedes-Benz has a digital instrument cluster with a resolution of 1920 x 720 pixels that shows functions uch DYNAMIC SELECT transmission modes. The screen design offers three different styles: “Classic”, “Sport” and “Progressive”.
Me-Centered Me Services
CES premiered the Mercedes me portal the personalized world of Mercedes-Benz for the US with remote start, emergency help, offers and navigation. There are also “me’ services such as service appointments, financing, acessories and online buying of MB items such as miniature cars, key rings or perfume.
Wireless Phone Connections
Mercedes-Benz E-Class offers capacitive aerial coupling. The smartphone connects to the multimedia system via Near Field Communication (NFC) just by placing it on a pad. The inductive charging area (153×90 mm) supports the Qi standard for charging. The smartphone can be used the digital vehicle key with which the car can be locked and unlocked as well as started. The new E-Class also supports Apple’s in-car infotainment system CarPlay and Android Auto.
The Mercedes-Benz Companion App for iPhone and Apple Watch is now available in the US. . It offers Door-to-Door Navigation which gives walking directions to the car.
The Apple watch app uses Machine Learning to provide a personalized User Experience by learning from customers’ actions and their environment. Say for example, the driver buys coffee on the way to work, after connecting the car may suggest directions to the driver’s most likely destination—Starbucks through the “Suggestions” feature
At any time, the App shows most likely destination they might want to go to then pushes such destination to the COMAND system. “Suggestions” can be enabled or disabled from the Settings menu and will begin to appear on the Home screen after selecting most destinations to travel to.
In the future the “Suggestions” might be something like “You’re not driving very well, would you please let DRIVE PILOT take over your drive to Starbucks?”