Chatting up your Mercedes just became easier
GETTING chatty with your Mercedes-Benz has become easier and more intuitive with the latest update to the Linguatronic voice control feature in the E-Class.
As cars move closer to one day achieving artificial intelligence and self-driving capability, so too are they being designed to interact with humans in a more ‘human’ way. Although still some way off the human-like reparte of KITT, the artificially intelligent Pontiac Trans Am in the Knight Rider TV series of the 1980s, the latest Linguatronic features an increased number of recognised words and you’re also now able to interrupt the car when it’s ‘speaking’.
On top of existing functions for infotainment and navigation inputs, Linguatronic can now also be used to voice-activate things like climate control, seat heaters, rear window demister and various comfort and lighting functions.
They can also call up the car’s next scheduled service, current speed limits, fuel range and the day’s date.
Up to 450 commands are now available, with hundreds of alternative phrases for the same functions, and for additional support a new “teleprompter” pops up in the instrument cluster with suggested inputs when the pushto-talk button on the steering wheel is pressed.
One of the biggest flaws with previous systems was having to wait for the car’s voice output to finish speaking before accepting a driver’s dialogue, but now it can be interrupted mid-sentence.
The Linguatronic function of the E-Class has now also learned three or four new synonymous responses to the same command, to make it feel more like you’re talking to a human rather than a robotic interface.