Mercedes-Benz presented the first fully integrated telematics system in the automotive industry in 1993, when the Communication and Navigation System (CNS) was premiered in the S-Class, after that came the LINGUATRONIC voice control system and the first 16:9 colour screen in 2002. Now something new completes this line: Internet access on-board Mercedes-Benz vehicles
The company, at the TecTalk “@ your comand”, showed how the engineers at Mercedes-Benz envision the near and more distant multimedia future with the aim of maintaining this pioneering role in telematics and infotainment. “Our vision can be summed up by the four key concepts of a ‘Holistic experience’, ‘Natural interaction’, ‘Sensory perfection’ and ‘User-friendly remote control'”, explains Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bharat Balasubramanian, Vice President Product Innovations & Process Technologies in Group Research & Advanced Engineering at Daimler AG.
Mercedes-Benz will be expanding the range of integrated apps for the COMAND Online multimedia system apace, for example, and offering numerous applications for all facets of the digital lifestyle.
From the autumn of 2011 new apps for the Facebook™ online network, for Google™ Streetview and Google™ Panoramio will be available. The new apps will be usable by all customers who drive a Mercedes-Benz with COMAND Online.
The COMAND Online multimedia system, available in the SLK, C-Class, E-Class, CLS and, from the autumn, in the new M-Class and the new B-Class, now offers internet access for the first time.
As already indicated in the “Concept A-CLASS” study (Shanghai, 2011), the graphic design of screen content will also acquire increasing importance in future.
“We are also pursuing research on 3D displays. Three-dimensional on-screen presentations enable information to be absorbed more intuitively,” Balasubramanian points out. “This simpler and faster recognition of warnings provides for a further improvement in road traffic safety.”
Of course, the safety is very important, so operation will also be even more intuitive in future, with voice control covering most functions, supported by gestures and touch.
“To us as safety pioneers, it is important that the driver is not distracted in any way. On the contrary, the aim is to enhance driver-fitness safety through improved user-friendliness,” explains Balasubramanian.
We can go further with examples of “natural interaction”, which include menu control via gestures or handwriting recognition (whereby the user traces a finger over the display on the head unit).
In the future the driver will be able to decide at the breakfast table or in the office which content or apps he wish to have on board, by carrying out corresponding pre-configurations via smartphone or PC.
The first such application to have been realised is the option offered by COMAND Online of downloading a route which has been configured on a PC beforehand using Google Maps and transmitted to the car.
A few months after the launch of the new multimedia generation, Mercedes-Benz is extending the range of integrated apps: new apps for the Facebook™ online network, for Google™ Streetview and Google™ Panoramio will be available for COMAND Online from this autumn. Streetview enables locations all over the world to be seen in 360-degree perspective views and at street level. Panoramio allows access to millions of photographs which have been taken and uploaded by other users at locations all around the globe. Streetview and Panoramio thus provide comprehensive means of studying routes and checking out sights and destinations before embarking on a journey.
Additional apps which have already been introduced are Google™ Local Search and Weather and the facility for downloading a route which has previously been configured on a PC using Google Maps and transmitted to the car.
The high-resolution colour display has a diagonal of 17.8 cm. Photos can be shown on the large screen and turned over manually, as in a slide show. Where the audio equipment is concerned, too, new types of representation bring a fresh look and more convenient operation.
Source: Media Daimler
