Mercedes-Benz Has Updated Its MBUX Platform; AI Joins The Party

Mercedes-Benz has expanded the capabilities of the MBUX Voice Assistant by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. It can now provide up-to-date answers to knowledge-based questions by starting a Microsoft Bing search. It then generates natural language responses using ChatGPT via the Microsoft Azure OpenAI service.

Thanks to the addition of the AI-powered Knowledge feature to the MBUX Assistant, users can now ask all kinds of general knowledge questions – from pop culture to geography, science, health, and history – and freely talk about the chosen topic to gain more information. The system can also respond to follow-up requests for additional information, even if the speaker uses ambiguous words. Customers can still use the MBUX Voice Assistant to ask queries about everyday topics like weather, stocks, news reports, and sports scores.

With the new CLA series, Mercedes will introduce an exciting new dimension to the MBUX virtual assistant. This will enable users to engage in natural conversations with their car to discover destinations and easily personalise their journeys. 

The new functionality is integrated directly into the MBUX Voice Assistant. As before, passengers can activate the assistant by saying, “Hey, Mercedes.” This makes it easy to use and creates a safe driving experience with completely hands-free conversation. Alternatively, they can press the speech button on the steering wheel to activate the assistant. The conversation history is stored for up to one hour to make the most of the function, allowing the user to ask follow-up questions.

Starting from this month, the new function will be available as a free update for more than three million vehicles with the MBUX infotainment system. It will initially be offered in German, British, and American English. Users from other markets can change their system language to experience the feature.

The Automotive AI Agent from Google Cloud enables carmakers to leverage the power of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to build and deploy first-party personalised voice assistant experiences with the quality and power of advanced AI. The Automotive AI Agent is built using Google’s Gemini Foundation models as its core, enabling multimodal reasoning capabilities through natural language speech interactions alongside navigation and search.

Mercedes-Benz retains complete control over IT operations in the background. All voice command data collected is stored in the Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Cloud, anonymised, and analysed.

To mitigate the risk of customers accessing toxic, harmful, illegal, and controversial content, Mercedes-Benz has implemented a risk assessment tool to evaluate system responses and identify best practises to reduce the likelihood of malicious responses.

The new AI-powered Point of Interest Search and Navigation feature will be launched on the new Mercedes-Benz CLA later this year. The new CLA will be the first model equipped with Mercedes-Benz’s new MB—OS operating system. More models with the MBUX voice assistant are also planned.

0