Merc throws down the gauntlet with its digital cockpit

Big tech and smartphone companies continue to hold a strong grip on customers’ minds with faster software, operating systems, processing power, artificial intelligence, speech integration, over-the-air software updates and intuitive user interfaces.

All these strengths could pose a serious threat to the future of auto companies. Perhaps the situation is not as dire either given that OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) are steadily planning a counter attack using the very same technologies to keep people hooked to their cars.

The weapon they have chosen to deploy is the digital cockpit. Over the past decade, automakers have successfully digitised a radio unit into an infotainment system that provides a host of additional features such as navigation, bluetooth, connectivity etc.

Yet, they never came even remotely close to providing one holistic experience since the instrument cluster remained analogue for reasons of safety. Apart from this, OEMs were increasingly being left in the lurch with phone mirroring technology, which saw the domination of a smartphone interface inside cars. How could they cope with this?

The Mercedes Benz User Experience (MBUX), showcased at the recently concluded Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, is perhaps the answer to this challenge. The company is launching this digital cockpit experience in the 2018 A-class that will debut at the Amsterdam and Geneva Motor Shows in March this year.

The cockpit concept is centered around providing individual preferences by intuitively using a high definition 10-inch display with user interactions. These happen via a touchscreen, touchpad on the steering joystick at the floor console and speech natural language.

The Mercedes team refers to this initiative as a Hot and Cool design principle.

Here, ‘Hot’ epitomises the emotional connect of colour, high definition 3D animation, and graphical display of cluster and console.

‘Cool’ is the intelligence behind providing services/preferences to customers. For instance, one does not need to ask how the weather in Mumbai is going to be like. On the other hand, a simple question to the digital personal assistant, which goes on the lines of ‘Do I need to carry an umbrella tomorrow?’ will fetch you a response of the weather in store.

Likewise, a request to play music will be quickly obliged by playing the songs of your favourite singer. Something even more straightforward like ‘I am hungry’ will throw up a slew of food service options while a crib about the heat will see the the cabin temperature quickly adjusted.

Artificial intelligence algorithms inside the vehicle begin learning the pattern of the driver’s favourite destinations, music artistes/songs, phone calls at certain times of the day and so on in the wish list directory. After a while, the system starts offering suggestions while the cockpit continuously interacts with the OEMs’ backend cloud updating information.

In addition, features such as global search (any keywords entered on the console provides options from within its database while also connecting to the Internet) and integration of third party applications such as Yelp to order food and Tripadvisor are a great way of interacting beyond the realm of the car ecosystem.

MBUX also integrates Google Home, Alexa to make it easy to interact with home appliances and smart wearable devices. It clearly drives home the message that the car is now your new companion.

OEMs have set their sights on regaining control and wooing customers. They hope to do this by creating a unique user experience that gels with the company’s overall brand image.

The next five years will see a lot of action in the human machine interface and creation of services platform in cloud. Automakers will get the car back into the centre of the customer’s world of interactions.

The digital cockpit will become the precursor to hosting technologies expected on autonomous cars. This is the beginning of more things to come as MBUX demonstrated at CES. The message coming through loud and clear is that even the traditional brands in the automobile space are now rebooting themselves with a vengeance in the new world of mobility.

The writer is an automotive enthusiast

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