Siri To Power Mercedes-Benz Car Systems

redletterdave writes "Mercedes-Benz unveiled plans on Monday to use Siri, Apple's AI personal assistant exclusive to the iPhone 4S, to power its electronics system called 'Drive Kit Plus,' which will essentially let drivers access their iPhone apps while driving using voice commands. With Siri, Mercedes drivers will have a hands-free solution to listen to music, change channels on the radio, send texts, or make calls. 'Drive Kit Plus' will also come pre-installed with a number of social networks, so drivers will even be able to update their Twitter accounts and post messages to Facebook. Siri will also be integrated with Garmin's GPS system, so drivers can navigate and get directions with simple voice commands. With this move, Mercedes-Benz earns the distinction of being the first carmaker to integrate Apple technology into its vehicles' in-car systems."

Comments

Oh No

[prichardson]

For me, Siri is unusable. I don't know if it's my voice or accent, but it rarely understands me, that is when the service is even up. A lot of the time, Siri is 'unavailable' presumably because Apple's servers are getting hammered by requests. I found the google voice recognition stuff to work a lot better. The only thing Siri has going for it is a rich set of commands.

Re:Oh No

[PessimysticRaven]

Sadly, the word you're looking for is "enunciating."
Saying it "like it's spelled" is what got us into the issue in the first place!

Re:Oh No

[CRCulver]

Try annunciating.

I tried telling my iPhone that it was highly favoured with the Lord, and, behold, it shall conceive in its womb, and bring forth a son. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Maybe I should have more clearly enunciated?

Re:Oh No

[Lambeco]

Help I'm a rock.

I have discovered the root of your issue. Have you tried not being a rock?

Re:Oh No

[Deorus]

Your experience is completely opposite to mine. I'm Portuguese, meaning not even a native English speaker, and Siri understands me perfectly. Furthermore, I seldom experience service downtime, so I would attribute that to your carrier.

Also, how the hell is this insightful?

Re:Oh No

[ColdWetDog]

Don't paper over the issue.

Experience

[omganton]

As someone who's been in a traumatic car wreck due to another driver being distracted, I have absolutely no desire to talk on the phone, send texts or update my social networking while I'm driving. There is nothing happening on my phone that's more important than my life, and I'd rather ignore a phone call or postpone my next twitter update rather than see my femur sticking through my lower intestine. You can call me whatever you want, but car accidents are caused by distractions, and people die. These are massive, powerful, destructive machines, and I'm sick and tired of seeing self-righteous, inconsiderate pricks with their head in their phone doing 75 down the highway.

Re:Experience

[pseudofrog]

I can see why you would think that, but the science doesn't confirm what you're thinking. I know of at least three potential explanations:

1) You don't feel the subconcious pressure to keep talking when someone's in the car with you. It's not considered "awkward" to shut up for 3-10 seconds in the middle of a conversation when you're driving. It feels awkward to do this on the phone.
2) It's far easier to understand someone in the car than someone over a cell network. Phones demand more brainpower.
3) You have a second set of eyes in the vehicle with you. Well, not so much in your example.

My guess is the the first reason I outlined is the biggest issue. Often when I'm driving with passengers I'll pause mid-sentence for some time while doing something that requires my full attention and nobody says anything or thinks twice about it. When on the phone, pausing that long prompts "Hello? Are you there? Did I lose you?" from the person I'm talking to.

I think if you did a test comparing people holding a cell-phone shaped device up to their ear while talking to a passenger to people actually talking on a cell phone, the former group would score higher. But the performance degradation of talking on a phone, in my opinion, is too great to be explained by having one hand occupied.

Just what I would want.... not

[markdavis]

Great- just what I would want in my next car, a non-changeable link to a totally proprietary technology that also will not work unless in a cell/data carrier area.

I was already pissed that my existing car had an ipod-only connection, and like most vehicles, the software is never updated. And of course, it only works with CERTAIN models of the iPod and nothing newer or older.

I have enough lock-in in my life already!

Really /.?

[wbr1]

Siri to power...

Siri is an interface, she doesn't power jack shit. That's like saying the steering wheel and accelerator power the car, or KDE powers the computer.

Re:How About Frigging Drive Kit Plus

[Fluffeh]

The most interesting thing in this article for me is lifespan. If I buy a phone with a funky feature I expect that feature to be active for the life of the phone - two to five years. However, if I buy a car, I would expect that all the features keep working for the life of the car - which is a lot longer. What is going to happen if in five or ten years time, Apple decides that Siri wasn't the right direction and makes something else? It comes back to the old DRM needing to be supported for the life of the product. What would happen to all the cars with this embedded if the servers were turned off?

Having said all that, something like Siri is probably the last thing I would want in a car, I am even discouraged by car commercials that offer "Built-in iPod docks" and the like. Too much lock-in for a specific product and brand.

Re:Don't leave the city...

[Deorus]

I find Siri to be quite useful, actually. Want to type a note in plain sunlight where your face's reflection is more visible than the contents of the screen? No problem, have Siri do it for you! Wanna set up a date / reminder / alarm? No problem, Siri can do that without even taking the phone out of your pocket. Wanna call someone? Just ask Siri, it's a lot more efficient than searching for their contact in the Contacts or Spotlight. Wanna switch playlists while listening to music? Just tell Siri which to switch to! Call it whatever you wish, but your feelings about voice recognition in general and Siri in particular are irrational.

Re:How About Frigging Drive Kit Plus

[russ1337]

This is why the car should support *integration* with phones and not *duplicate* phones functionality. Connectivity should be in the most future-proof possible way. This could be mic and headphone jack, USB (for charging), & Bluetooth.

Let the phone do the hard work and provide a means of integrating the phone.

You might need to modularise the interface so it can be swapped out every few years as the 'standard' phone interfaces change.

Bandwidth

[Calydor]

What I want to know is who foots the bandwidth bill.

Siri works by sending each and every command to the cloud and getting replies back, right?

The cell companies keep yapping about how limited the mobile network's bandwidth is, which is why mobile data plans are so costly.

So who will be paying for this, and what happens when Car-Siri (Carrie? Now THERE is a scary thought!) exceeds its monthly allowance and dips into costly overtime?

Re:Apple's way behind here...

[ackthpt]

Apple may be late, but the way some people listen, they'll believe Apple invented it.

Re:How About Frigging Drive Kit Plus

[ColdWetDog]

Also what's the advantage of this over getting an iPhone 4S and sticking it on the dash?

More room for the bobble head Jesus.

USA! USA! USA!

Re:Don't leave the city...

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Personally, using voice commands for operating anything inside a car doesn't really interest me. It's probably a generational thing, but using voice commands to control anything makes me feel like a douche. It's nothing but a higher-tech Clapper.

This is a little OT, but I was sold on Siri the moment I said "read me that last text message". It actually tells you the message and you don't need to look at your display. It's as close as I've ever seen to Captain Picard asking the Enterprise's computer a question.

I really can't wait for version 2. Siri right now feels like a poor beta.

It works great on bikes, too...

[rocket rancher]

Personally, using voice commands for operating anything inside a car doesn't really interest me. It's probably a generational thing, but using voice commands to control anything makes me feel like a douche. It's nothing but a higher-tech Clapper.

Hmmm...not everybody drives cars, dude. I think Siri is fan-fucking-tastic because my daily driver is a Ducati 1098. Suddenly, with Siri, I can actually do more than queue up a new playlist or make/take calls with the Sena SMH10 comm system in my helmet. Much beyond that, I would have had to find a spot to pull over so that I could get to the touchscreen interface on my iPhone. With Siri, I can text my pals, pull up (and edit!) my calendar, get turn by turn directions even easier than on my very-motorcycle-friendly Garmin Zumo 660, and even jump in vent and chat with my guildies if I want to, all without having to stop, or even having to take my eyes off the road, which I still sometimes have to do with the Zumo, despite it's well thought-out interface. If Siri is a glimpse of the future of voice interfaces, I'm liking it.