It is very hard for all automakers, but it’s especially hard for the more established German luxury automakers to stay ahead of or even keep up with the newest developments in-car technology. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi were the top luxury car brands in the world for a long time. However, some new companies entered the market and started to take market share away from them. Mercedes has come up with a new way to set itself apart from the others: it wants its cars to be fun to talk to. In fact, no. In an interview with Top Gear, Magnus Ostberg, who is the Chief Software Officer at Merc, says some surprising things about how the company is taking users from Asia. This is changing the way it’s growing. “Our ultimate goal with our virtual assistants is to provide a service: it’s very different in different regions what that service is,” Östberg told the newspaper. Yes, our Asian clients indeed like to chat or talk. They don’t want anything; all they want is to talk to someone. So that no one gets upset, Ostberg makes it clear that this is not an attempt to force people who don’t want it to do it. German customers of this brand don’t want as much control over their car’s digital helper. “So, what is the purpose that you are trying to achieve?” Ostberg kept talking. “As the customer, I want to know if the graphical interface and the actual graphical feedback, such as the ability to read your face, are understanding me when I want to [change a settling in the car].” It doesn’t matter if you get it or not. This is why the virtual assistant has such a range of feelings or personalities. Mercedes offers a variety of actions that a helper can do to make these interactions more in line with global standards. The team worked together to give the helper four “moods”: natural, sympathetic, personal, and proactive. Using face recognition and in-car video, the company also wants to change the assistant’s behavior toward the driver based on what the technology finds. People who want things to be easier will find little comfort in the rest of the talk. Ostberg thinks dashboard screens will stay the same for a while, but Mercedes plans to stress voice control in the future to make up for the lack of real buttons. When asked about the benefits of subscriptions, Ostberg attacks the company’s main rival in a nice way, which could be seen as a good thing. “This will be a luxurious experience,” said the head of software. That’s how we think at Mercedes.” In other words, this means we don’t treat our clients badly. It gives you a fuller view. Clients do need to sign up for a deal and meet other requirements, but we don’t think they should be “nickel and dimed” along the way. That’s different from what our clients want. Mercedes has yet to say how it plans to keep offering perks that can be subscribed to without being called greedy or overcharging. Despite the fact that it merges more functions into more complete packages, it is not much more cost-effective than BMW’s method; instead, it is less flexible. In the future, the in-car therapy plan might be an extra thing that Silver Arrows customers can buy. I know that being alone is a big problem, but if you can afford a Mercedes, you can also afford good treatment.
