Driving a Mercedes-Benz is a wonderful luxury, but Google and Yahoo! want to make your driving experience even easier. Now when you visit either Google or Yahoo! Maps, you’ll be able to send customized maps or directions to your vehicle by clicking the “Send to Car” option. A godsend for bad drivers? Absolutely.
When you get into your SL500 or E320, hit the “I” button in your car to download the personalized maps and data to your car’s computer. It gets better though. Other people can send you maps while you’re driving, meaning if you need your wife or someone to send you directions to the restaurant you’re meeting at, she can do it from her laptop or home PC. Dubbed “Search and Send”, this technology is going to be a key selling point in future Mercedes models for sure. I wonder if I can send a route that shows all the available strip clubs on my trip…
Personally this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. This feature would be great in less expensive cars, but not the high end cars.
The reason being is that in my opinion most persons that own a Mercedes either has a GPS or has the money to purchase a GPS unit. Thus eliminating the need for this feature.
This feature would probably be used more in cars where people couldn’t afford GPSs but then they probably couldn’t afford the option to have maps sent to their cars.
They’re trying to do the same thing as a GPS and I don’t see it being very successful. Cool idea, but not really useful anymore.
I disagree with the above. The whole drawback with the GPS devices is the outdated maps. You cannot get a map update while you are driving (unless you have a big-pipe-internet-tube runnin’n in your car).
This makes perfect sense in the above scenario, get someone to send you a updated map from Google/Yahoo, instead of relying on the GPS device’s old map database. I have been in situation where going out to newly constructed townships & the GPS is showing an empty field! :)