Mercedes-Benz and Google Partner on AI-powered Conversational Search within Navigation Systems
London, January 14, 2025, (Oilandgaspress) –––Mercedes-Benz and Google Cloud today announced the expansion of their strategic partnership to introduce new conversational capabilities to the MBUX Virtual Assistant, powered by Google Cloud’s new Automotive AI Agent. Built using Gemini on Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent is specially tuned for the automotive industry and can reference information from Google Maps Platform to give users more detailed and personalized conversational responses about navigation, points of interest and more.
Google Maps Platform provides Mercedes-Benz owners with fresh and factual information about 250 million places around the world, and the map is updated nearly in real time, with over 100 million updates made to the map each day. With the enhanced search and navigation experience, users can converse naturally with the MBUX Virtual Assistant and get answers to questions like: “Could you guide me to the nearest fine-dining restaurant for a unique culinary experience?”. Users can also ask follow-up questions, like: “Does the restaurant have good reviews?” or “What is the chef’s signature dish?” and the MBUX Virtual Assistant can respond with accurate, up-to-date information and display navigation details through the vehicle’s native interface. The new experience will be available in the MBUX Virtual Assistant, with Mercedes-Benz’s new CLA series later this year.
Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent will also enable the MBUX Virtual Assistant to handle complex, multi-turn dialogue and can retain memory of conversations, which means users can continue conversations and reference information throughout their drives.
Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent enables automakers to leverage the power of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to build and deploy customized, first-party, voice-assistant experiences with state-of-the-art AI quality. Automotive AI Agent was built using Google’s Gemini models, which enables multimodal reasoning capabilities through natural language speech interactions and uses information from Google Maps Platform.
The new AI-enhanced Point-of-Interest search and navigation feature is coming to the new Mercedes‑Benz CLA later this year. It will be the first vehicle designed with the new Mercedes-Benz operating system, MB.OS. A rollout to further models with the MBUX Voice Assistant is also planned.
Information Source: Read More
