Mercedes-Benz experimenting with Google Glass
Mercedes-Benz’s North American R&D chief claims the ultimate goal is to use Google’s head-worn computer to create a seamless GPS system.
Mercedes-Benz’s North American R&D chief claims the ultimate goal is to use Google’s head-worn computer to create a seamless GPS system.
Despite the fact that Gary C. Howell, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, is currently trying to pass a bill that would make them illegal while driving, Mercedes-Benz’s US research and development arm is hard at work developing in-car applications for Google Glass.
In an interview with Business Journal this week, Johann Jungwirth, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, says that the company’s ultimate goal is to create a “seamless” door-to-door transition between pedestrian directions and in-car GPS. The idea being that the information displayed via the headset automatically switches from in-car navigation to on-foot directions the moment the driver kills the engine and alights from his or her luxury German sedan.
The contextual awareness of Google Glass would mean that a destination would only have to be entered once to cover the journey, no matter how many different forms of transport were required to arrive at a destination.
As a device, Google Glass is still also very much in its own R&D phase. Only a handful of the headsets are ‘in the wild’ and they mostly belong to developers who are busy getting to grips with what the wearable computer can do and how they can best exploit its features via specially created apps.