Mercedes-Benz CES: Turning the Car into a Social Media Platform

The German car brand Mercedes-Benz made a special speech at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), emphasizing the company's progress in telematics, which sounds a bit like car Incarnate as a social media platform - just like the other competitors in the brand.

However, outside the venue, the researchers of Daimler Group, the Mercedes-Benz group, received an editorial interview from EETimes, revealing more potential for the potential - they said that electric cars will significantly reduce weight in the future. Longer driving distance.

Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Daimler Group and chief executive of the Mercedes-Benz brand, delivered a keynote speech on the first day (1/10) of the CES; Zetsche was a well-known “Dr. Z” in the US ten years ago when the American car manufacturer Chrysler was still affiliated with the company. Under the Daimler Group, Zetsche has produced TV commercials for the brand.

In the keynote speech, Zetsche gave full play to the charm of the Germans and marketed what he called "a new level of automotive action" - that is, the car communication and entertainment system mbrace2 developed by the Daimler Group; this system first appeared in Mercedes-Benz. The new SL series will soon become the standard equipment for all models of the brand launched in the United States.

Mbrace2 flaunts cloud-based technology and uses Daimler's vehicle backend server to continuously transmit navigation information to cars. It can also connect social media sites such as Facebook. In addition, the system can also send back real-time information. Sex car diagnostic information to the car dealer.

At the marketing level, Daimler packs mbrace2 as a "digitallifestyle" solution with a "personal goalkeeper" feature that allows parents to keep track of children's actions in the car, and through Google. Search for information or provide other common Internet features.

In addition to these readily available consumer opportunities, Zetsche hinted that the continued proliferation of smart features for embedded vehicles will likely result in more applications: "We are developing a new generation of vehicles to act as digital companions; Entertainment features, as well as weather and road conditions for travel in the driver’s plan.”

To prevent consumers from understanding contemporary cars as an electronic platform, parts such as engines and transmissions are finally put together, and Zetsche shares a point of view that automotive telematics systems will improve safety: “We can use The network manages a lot of data traffic, so why not use it to manage a lot of traffic?"

Such data screening includes GPS data analysis from smart phones, identifying traffic congestion locations and keeping drivers away from those road segments. It can also include anti-collision technology: “As far as possible, vehicle safety is still a key issue. Therefore, we are pursuing the vision of a zero-accident vehicle,” said Zetsche.

Although the theme of Mercedes-Benz’s public speech at CES was in-vehicle electronics, the company’s engineers disclosed to the EETimes editor that a large part of the company’s R&D activities is expected to find an alternative power transmission while improving vehicle safety ( Power-train) technology.

Carbon-fiber composites, which currently play a key role in the aerospace industry, are being used on a large number of Boeing's new Dreamliner aircraft, but they are still too expensive for high-end vehicles (high-end electric cars. The manufacturer Fisker has applied composite materials to its products.) A Mercedes-Benz researcher stated that he believes that accelerated use of composite materials will bring about a reduction in manufacturing costs, and that carbon fiber has begun to enter the automotive sector.

Before all-composite vehicles become popular, there is bound to be a long way to go; and the use of composite materials will result in the reduction of vehicle weight; the reduced weight of the vehicle means that they can travel longer distances and plug in. The importance of rechargeable electric vehicles is even more pronounced, because for consumers, the “travel distance anxiety” of driving such vehicles is a big obstacle.

There is a bigger problem in the field of electric vehicles. There is a lack of battery technology that can make steady progress like Moore's Law; the storage capacity and energy density of electric vehicle batteries have been progressing little in the past decade. Lithium-ion batteries are still dominant in this regard, although their power consumption time and exercise distance remain stagnant.

But for the idea that battery technology is generally expected to never advance again, Mercedes-Benz researchers believe that there is still hope that the experimental progress of the new generation of chemical formulas will break such an impasse.