Your car is about to get a lot smarter, thanks to Mercedes and Google

Tired of yelling at your car's voice assistant? You're not alone. We all have wrestled with those frustrating voice command systems that seem to never understand even the simplest requests. Mercedes-Benz claims it is about to change that. The German automaker is ditching the old, buggy technology and integrating Google's advanced Gemini AI directly into its cars, starting with the new all-electric Mercedes CLA.

In-car voice assistants have often felt like a step backward. Systems like Google Assistant, once promising, became notorious for misunderstanding commands, processing requests slowly, or failing entirely. Thanks to the advent of giant touchscreens that demand a driver's visual attention, a reliable voice assistant is becoming a critical safety feature.

The failure of these systems forces drivers to divert their eyes from the road to tap through menus, defeating the entire purpose of voice control. But, if we were to believe Google and Mercedes, that frustrating era is finally coming to an end.

Google's clever artificial intelligence, unlike the systems with rigid commands that we are used to, understands context and can handle follow-up questions. In a promotional video released by Google, a driver asks Gemini to find a nearby coffee shop:

After receiving a list of shops, they casually asked if a particular café served pastries. Without missing a beat, Gemini scanned the location's menu, Google Maps data, and customer reviews to provide an instant, accurate answer. It's this ability to have a natural, back-and-forth conversation that sets it apart.

The new system, integrated into the Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX), goes far beyond simple navigation. It can search for an Italian restaurant and, when asked about its wine selection, offer to place a phone call directly to the establishment.

Every search for a location is sorted by distance and displayed with its Google rating and the number of reviews, allowing the driver to make informed decisions without ever touching the screen. This deep integration, which makes the car's virtual assistant genuinely useful, was developed in a remarkably short 10-month period.

The all-electric CLA is built on a new 800-volt architecture, enabling incredibly fast charging. Mercedes claims it can add over 199 miles of range in just 10 minutes. The base CLA 250+ is expected to offer a range of over 348 miles and will be priced around $55,000 when it goes on sale in the US.

The CLA is already available across Europe, with prices starting at nearly $65,600 for the 250+, with the range-topping 350 4MATIC asking for a bit steeper $70,800. There is apparently an even faster, AMG-badged version in the works as well.

Mercedes will be the first to introduce the Gemini integration, but Google is promising to roll it out to all Android Auto-supported vehicles. That means millions of car owners eventually will benefit from a smarter AI assistant. The days of shouting "Hey, Google, navigate home!" only to be met with a confused question: "Do you want me to call John?" are apparently numbered.

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