Mercedes-Benz is Integrating Google Services Into Its Vehicles

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. - May 21, 2013 - PRLog -- Mercedes-Benz of Hoffman Estates (http://www.mercedeshoffman.com/index.htm), one of the Naperville area’s top auto dealers, is proud to be able to offer the latest Mercedes-Benz vehicles, which are known for offering superb driving dynamics along with some of the latest technology. The German automaker’s penchant for pushing the technological envelop was recently on full display at Google I/O, an annual developer’s conference, where Mercedes-Benz showed off an SL-Class vehicle integrated with a variety of Google services.

The Drive Kit Plus  is a system that works with a smartphone and a specially designed app to seamlessly integrate the smartphone’s functionality into the vehicle’s infotainment system. When combined with the Mercedes-Benz Digital DriveStyle App, the smartphones functions can be organized under several categories — Social, Media, and Places — and accessed through the vehicle. This means that smartphone functions can be shown on the vehicle’s display and can be controlled using either the infotainment system’s voice-recognition technology or via the COMAND® controller.

Perhaps the best part is that the Drive Kit Plus can be had with almost the entire current Mercedes-Benz lineup (http://www.mercedeshoffman.com/showroom/index.htm).

The concept edition of Digital DriveStyle that was recently showcased shone a spotlight on four features in particular:

“Faster search, everywhere you go” – Thanks to Google Places Autocomplete API, DriveStyle can predict the destinations drivers are searching for as you type them in.
“Preview destinations on-the-go” – Thanks to local pictures from Google+ and images from Google Street View, exploring places locally and around the world is easy.
“Know the hottest spots in town” – Drivers who are looking for a great time will be pleased to learn that DriveStyle can use Google Places API Radar Search and Heatmaps to visualize areas that feature a large number of shopping centers, restaurants, and nightclubs.
“Get live traffic conditions” – Provides a color-coded overlay of traffic conditions on a Google Map in real time.

The DriveStlye App is expected to get an update integrating these features sometime in 2013. Drivers in the Naperville area who want to learn more, or who want to take a test drive of the latest Mercedes-Benz vehicles, should visit Mercedes-Benz of Hoffman Estates at 1000 W Golf Rd (http://www.mercedeshoffman.com/dealership/directions.htm) in Hoffman Estates, IL.