Mercedes-Benz announces new features for the Digital Drivestyle App

The German brand is taking part these days in the annual conference Google I/O, which the Californian company organises to showcase the work of its teams and those of its partners. The Digital Drivestyle app, developed by Mercedes-Benz, uses Google services. For this reason, it has taken advantage of the event to show the new features it will include before the end of June this year.

This app makes it possible to transfer all the apps from a smartphone listed in the categories “Social“, “Multimedia” and “Google Places” to the car’s on-board screen. These can be used via the COMAND controller fitted to Mercedes-Benz vehicles or through voice control. The “Google Places” category brings together the four main novelties shown at the conference.

Firstly, with this update the service’s interface will feature the autocomplete function, so that any place or business can be located more quickly. Secondly, these places can be previewed in advance using Street View or images uploaded by users to Google+. Another new function is the ability to mark on the navigation system the nearby areas with the highest concentration of leisure, shopping and dining venues.

Finally, the Google Places service is able to display traffic information in real time, colour-coded by intensity on the map. For now, the Digital Drivestyle app is only compatible with the iPhone 4 and 4S. However, Mercedes-Benz states that the iPhone 5 will join the list before the end of 2013. In addition, these updates can be downloaded via the Internet, with no need to visit a dealership.

Source | Daimler