All new Mercedes-Benz vehicles, including the 2010 E-Class, will be equipped with the mbrace system. You supply the iPhone.
You’ve just flown across country and now you remember all the things you forgot to do back home, like turning off the coffee and locking your car.
There’s not much Mercedes-Benz can do about the first problem, but its new iPhone “app,” developed in cooperation with Hughes Telematics, can handle the latter matter.
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“This is the next generation of telematics,” proclaimed Hughes president Erik Goldman, referring to Mercedes new mbrace service, which is based around an application you can install on not only the iPhone but the Blackberry and other smartphones.
The voice-operated mbrace handles a total of 18 different functions, allowing a user to communicate with the car from anywhere around the world. You can not only lock or unlock your car, but access various concierge services for getting theater tickets, for example, or locking down a dinner reservation. You can also get mbrace to upload a map to your vehicle without having to program in the destination yourself.
There’s a $280 annual feed for mbrace – – though buyers get six months free — which is, at heart, similar to General Motors’ OnStar system, though GM does not offer a mobile app. You need, instead, to dial into OnStar’s central number to take advantage of its various services.
The mbrace system replaces Mercedes’ decade-old TeleAid technology, and will be offered on all of the maker’s new models. Some older vehicles will be able to use mbrace, as well.
“We have the flexibility to offer just about any service imaginable,” said Hughes’ Goldman.
Telematics has been a growing area of business for the auto industry, in recent years. GM now offers OnStar on virtually all its vehicles, while Ford is rapidly expanding the use of its Sync system. Toyota’s Lexus brand is adding an OnStar-like system, as are numerous other makers.
Mercedes, however, sees clear advantages to linking to the iPhone and other smartphones, for which 10s of thousands of new apps have rolled out in recent months.
In fact, the automaker’s captive lender, Mercedes Financial Services, beat the auto side of the business to the smartphone punch. It recently launched an app that allows a customer to pay bills, checks balances and perform other tasks on the Apple iPhone. Several thousand customers signed up within the first month, officials have told TheDetroitBureau.com. And the lender is now considering whether to offer the app for the Blackberry and other smartphones.