"I realized just how useful Mercedes-Benz's new in-car AI assistant can be when I was driving a different car. After testing the impressive new 2026 Mercedes CLA-Class in San Francisco, I flew back to New York, but then faced several hours of driving through a winter rainstorm. That's when I realized I hadn't changed my windshield wipers in foreverone of those little errands I always mean to do but always forget about until it's too lateand that meant having less visibility than I wanted."
"But most cars with voice controls aren't very smart. They generally want you to say commands that correspond to preset phrases, like "navigate to" or "call so-and-so." You aren't meant to converse with them. But Mercedes has added multiple layers of AI and internet search capabilities to this system, including ChatGPT4o, Microsoft Bing Search and Google Cloud's Automotive AI Agent for navigation."
"Once you try an in-car AI assistant, as I did, you may want it to stick around. Gallery: 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ (U.S. Spec) Source: Patrick George At least, that is what Mercedes is betting on with the new MBUX Virtual Assistant. It's a key feature in the already extremely high-tech CLA-Class, soon to be coming to other models in the family."
An in-car AI assistant can perform conversational, contextual tasks that traditional voice systems cannot. The MBUX Virtual Assistant accepts wake-word or steering-wheel activation and understands natural-language requests instead of preset commands. The system integrates ChatGPT4o, Microsoft Bing Search and Google Cloud's Automotive AI Agent to provide smarter navigation, internet search results and practical rerouting to nearby services. The assistant enables hands-free destination changes, location searches and task completion while driving. The feature debuts in the high-tech 2026 Mercedes CLA-Class and will be rolled out to other Mercedes models.
Read at insideevs.com
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