Mercedes-Benz’s Virtual Assistant uses Google’s conversational AI agent
Mercedes-Benz’s virtual assistant, MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience), has integrated Google's conversational AI technology to enhance its capabilities. This collaboration allows MBUX to provide more advanced natural language processing and understanding, making the in-car experience more intuitive for users.
With the integration of Google's AI, Mercedes-Benz aims to offer more natural and responsive voice commands, improving functions like navigation, media control, and personalized assistance. This enhancement enables the virtual assistant to better understand and predict user needs, creating a seamless and user-friendly experience.
Mercedes-Benz's latest MBUX Virtual Assistant, introduced in the new Mercedes CLA at CES 2024, incorporates Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent platform. This platform is designed to enhance the driving experience by supporting continuous, multi-turn conversations and referencing information throughout the journey.
Unlike the older version of MBUX, which could process around 20 voice commands (like “Hey Mercedes”) and relied on OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing for search results, the new system is far more advanced. It’s built on Google Cloud's Vertex AI development platform and powered by Google's Gemini language model. The upgraded MBUX Virtual Assistant is capable of handling complex conversational queries, providing nearly real-time Google Maps updates, restaurant reviews, recommendations, and more. Its ability to process multi-turn dialogues means it can maintain context over multiple interactions, making it much more dynamic and intuitive.
The assistant's new design includes four distinct personality traits: natural, predictive, personal, and empathetic, enhancing its ability to offer more tailored, human-like responses. It also improves upon clarity by asking follow-up questions when needed to ensure accuracy in its responses.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized the transformational potential of these AI-driven "agentic" capabilities in the automotive industry, suggesting this is just the beginning of a more personalized, intelligent in-car experience. While the new system is being launched with the next-generation MB.OS operating system in the CLA, Mercedes plans to roll out this advanced assistant to additional models in the future. However, specific models haven't been named yet.
