Now you can have a human-like chat with your all-knowing Mercedes

The MBUX voice assistant feature in Mercedes-Benz cars is being upgraded with an AI-driven capability to answer questions in a conversational style.

It allows the driver or passenger to ask various general knowledge questions and get up-to-date answers, much like with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri or Google Assistant.

The car initiates a Microsoft Bing search and creates natural language responses using ChatGPT through Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service.

Last year, the German firm was one of the first car companies to introduce ChatGPT as a US-beta program and is now bringing the feature into series-production vehicles for the first time.

What gives this AI system an edge over previous voice assistants is that it is context-aware, allowing it to respond to follow-up requests for additional information, even if the speaker uses vague words.

For instance, the question could be: “How many Formula One titles has Lewis Hamilton won?” After receiving the answer, the user could add: “When was the first?” and the system will answer correctly as it understands the background.

The conversation history is stored for up to an hour, allowing the user to ask follow-up questions.

As before, customers can use the MBUX voice assistant to ask about topics such as the weather, stocks, news reports and sports results.

“By adding an AI-driven knowledge feature to our MBUX voice assistant, we are making it even easier for customers to connect with their vehicle in an entertaining and rewarding way,” said Mercedes chief technology officer Markus Schäfer.

“This is another proof point on our journey towards the hyper-personalised in-car user experience.”

Conversing with the system is entirely hands-free once the driver or passenger activates the assistant by saying “Hey Mercedes” or pressing a speech button on the steering wheel.

The new function will be available as a free update to more than three million vehicles with the MBUX infotainment system. It will initially be offered in three languages: German, British English and American English.