Time is short and many things often need to be taken care of quickly in the morning before going to work or before leaving on a road trip. But moments after driving off, our thoughts often turn homeward again: “Did I switch off the light in the hallway? Did I turn down the heating in the bathroom? Did I close the windows and lock the doors?”
In the future, drivers of the new S-Class will receive friendly answers to these questions via MBUX, which notifies them of the current status of their Bosch Smart Home devices even while driving and enables drivers to easily control those devices while on the road. Starting in December, this will initially be possible for the following Bosch Smart Home products: Smart Plug, Room Thermostat, Radiator Thermostat, Shutter Control, Door/Window Contact, Light Control and Motion Detector.
Bosch also makes smart fridges washter/dryers and appliances, maybe someday a driver can ask, “Is there milk, butter and eggs in the fridge?”
The driver’s attention always remains completely focused on the road and the traffic because the status request and control commands work simply and contact-free via the MBUX voice assistant. All the driver needs to do is to ask: “Hey Mercedes, is everything okay at home?” The system automatically responds by sending a status update directly to the car: “The shutters in the bedroom are still open and the light in the bathroom is still on.” The driver can then send specific commands to the smart home: “Hey Mercedes, please lower the shutters in the bedroom all the way down” or “Hey Mercedes, switch off the light in the bathroom”.
This car-to-home integration is achieved thanks to the open partner interface that Bosch Smart Home has been offering since the beginning of the year. The interface enables partners such as Mercedes-Benz to integrate Bosch Smart Home devices into their own solutions via a Cloud API.
“We are very pleased to welcome Mercedes-Benz as another strong partner for our smart home. This collaboration not only creates a meaningful connection between the topics of home and mobility, but also unites our corporate philosophies – ‘Technology for living’ and ‘The best or nothing’ – under a common goal: to bring new lightness and ease to the connected lives of our users, who will benefit greatly from this,” says Christian Thess, Managing Director of Bosch Smart Home, about the new partnership.
“We are delighted to be able to extend our partnership with Bosch in the Smart Home area and are enthusiastic to deliver superior voice-enabled interactions through our MBUX Voice Assistant. Our integration of Bosch’s Smart Home solutions, with its broad range of supported devices, has made it possible for MBUX to strengthen its position as a leader in automotive Voice AI,” says Nils Schanz, Head of User Interaction Voice Control, Mercedes-Benz, has positive words to say about this joint step as well.
The smart home function will initially be available exclusively in the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class starting in December 2020. Gradual expansion to include the manufacturer’s other model series is planned.