Mercedes Takes Maps From House To Car

No matter how comfortable your car is, odds are that your house is even more cushy.  The house is also likely to have a better computer, monitor, and keyboard.  So it’s an important breakthrough that will allow American Mercedes-Benz owners to send directions from their computers to their cars.

Mercedes Takes Maps From House To Car Admittedly, a similar system is available from BMW, but it’s only available in Europe, and it only interfaces with various versions of Google Maps.  The Mercedes deal involves both Google Maps and Yahoo Maps; according to a press release, owners will be able to “simply click on a newly introduced ‘Send to Car’ icon” from either site.

“The information is then sent directly to the vehicle’s GPS navigation unit,” the release continues.  “When the driver gets into the vehicle, pushing the i-button of the Tele Aid system downloads the destination directly to the vehicle’s navigation system and prompts the driver as to whether to start route guidance immediately or save the information for later use.”

Not bad, eh?  And although no Mercedes is inexpensive, don’t worry that availability of the “Search & Send” feature will be limited to go-fast AMGs or other exotic models – the company stated that the service will introduced on a range of cars.

Don’t worry, either, that availability of the service will be limited to this one luxury brand.  By introducing Search & Send in the U.S., Mercedes will encourage (even force) BMW and Lexus to keep up.