Mercedes-Benz and Google Join Forces.

February 22, 2023 – Mercedes-Benz and Google announced today a long-term strategic partnership to further accelerate auto innovation and create the industry’s next-generation digital luxury car experience. With this partnership, Mercedes-Benz will be the first automaker to build its own branded navigation experience based on new in-car data and navigation capabilities from Google Maps Platform.

This will give the luxury automaker access to Google’s leading geospatial offering, including detailed information about places, real-time and predictive traffic information, automatic rerouting, and more. By embedding these features into the upcoming Mercedes-Benz Operating System (MB.OS), customers will be able to enjoy a superior navigation experience, thanks to easy usability and outstanding graphics on the car’s high-resolution screen. To help enrich the user experience, the companies will bring the YouTube app into the Mercedes-Benz infotainment system. In addition, Mercedes-Benz will use Google Maps data to enable assisted driving features such as automatic speed adjustments before intersections, roundabouts or curves.

We invite only the very best partners to enhance our operating system and to add to the Mercedes-Benz customer experience. Google has been a leader in maps and navigation for many years. With our strategic partnership, we are excited to create unique services and to elevate the level of convenience for our customers. It will be deeply integrated within our signature Mercedes-Benz user interface and fully connected to relevant vehicle functions like the state-of-charge.

Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG

As a first step, Mercedes-Benz will give customers access to Place Details provided by Google, helping them find detailed information about more than 200 million businesses and places around the world, including business hours, photos, ratings, and reviews. Place Details will be available starting today in all vehicles with the latest generation of MBUX in applicable markets¹.

The companies agreed to explore further collaboration using Google Cloud’s leading artificial intelligence (AI), data and open infrastructure solutions. For example:

• AI: Mercedes-Benz intends to use Google Cloud’s AI and Machine Learning capabilities to create, train, and deploy new models at speed and enhance customer experiences.
• Data: Mercedes-Benz intends to use Google Cloud’s fast and efficient data processing platform to analyze fleet data.
• Open Infrastructure: Mercedes-Benz plans to use Google’s open infrastructure to securely innovate and scale from on-premises, to edge, to cloud, across Mercedes-Benz’s current technology landscape.

Our partnership with Mercedes-Benz brings advanced technologies from Google Maps Platform, Cloud, and YouTube to help create new experiences for drivers. In addition to enabling Mercedes-Benz to design a customized navigation interface, we’ll provide our AI and data capabilities to accelerate their sustainability efforts, advance autonomous driving, and create an enhanced customer experience.”

Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer, Google and Alphabet

¹All Generation 2020 MBUX (NTG7) vehicles with navigation in connect markets except China, Japan and Korea. Series: 223, 206, 295, 297, 296, 294, 254, 232, 177 (from production 12/2022, model year 22/2), W247 (from production 12/2022, model year 22/2), V167 (from production 12/2022, model year 22/2).

https://group.mercedes-benz.com/investors/events/2023-02-mercedes-benz-group-strategy-update.html

Mercedes-Benz today detailed its plans as the architect of its own operating system MB.OS, which will be introduced mid-decade with the new MMA platform (Mercedes Modular Architecture).

Video recordings as well as presentations for download can be found at the bottom of this page.

Video: Highlights

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Building a proprietary system – open for partners

MB.OS is designed and developed in-house to retain full control over the customer relationship, ensure data privacy, and to leverage the unique integration of all car functions. Based on a purpose-built chip-to-cloud architecture, MB.OS benefits from full access to all vehicle domains: infotainment, automated driving, body & comfort, driving & charging. This strategic approach allows the world’s most valuable luxury automotive brand to offer its customers a differentiated, superior product experience.

Mercedes-Benz Strategy Update Operating System: Ola Källenius.

At Mercedes-Benz, we are dedicated to building the world’s most desirable cars. Accordingly, we made the decision to be the architects of our own operating system – a unique chip-to-cloud architecture that leverages its full access to our vehicles’ hardware- and software components. By combining this in-house expertise with a selection of world-class partners, we will create an outstanding customer experience, from driving assistance, navigation and entertainment, all the way to integrated charging. MB.OS will feature full upgradeability and constant improvements.

Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Partnering with innovation leaders

MB.OS is designed to connect the major aspects of the company’s value chain, including development, production, omni-channel commerce and services – effectively making it an operating system for the entire Mercedes-Benz business. That’s why the effects of MB.OS range from decoupling development cycles to enhancing customer lifetime value long after the original car purchase.

The company created its operating system to be standardized across the entire vehicle portfolio, fully updateable for rapid product upgrades and deliberately open for selected partners. While Mercedes-Benz defines and controls the architecture with its own hardware and software base layer, the integration of leading technology players grants customers access to best-in-class services, content and functions.

Mercedes-Benz and Google

Join Forces to Create Next-Generation Navigation Experience.

These MB.OS partners include NVIDIA, which provides its software, data and AI expertise as well as its Orin system-on-chip to enhance benchmark SAE Level 2 and Level 3 automated driving systems. Vehicle variants will also be equipped with next-generation sensors, including Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors from Luminar. Today, Mercedes-Benz announced its most recent partnership – the new long-term strategic collaboration with Google to develop and implement a next-generation in-car navigation experience.

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Elevating the infotainment experience

Mercedes-Benz will be the first automaker to build its own branded navigation experience based on new in-car data and navigation capabilities from the Google Maps Platform – embedded into MB.OS. This aims to give the luxury carmaker access to Google’s leading geospatial offering, including real-time and predictive traffic information, automatic rerouting, and more. To enrich the user experience, drivers will also be able to use the YouTube app on the infotainment system when parked and while using the DRIVE PILOT Level 3 conditionally automated driving system, where permitted. In addition, Mercedes-Benz will give customers access to Place Details provided by Google, helping them find detailed information about more than 200 million businesses and places around the world, including business hours, photos, ratings, and reviews. Place Details provided by Google will be available starting today in all vehicles with the latest generation of MBUX in applicable markets¹.

At the same time, Mercedes-Benz drivers will continue to benefit from the native integration of essential navigation functionalities, which are unavailable from off-the-shelf infotainment systems. One example is precise and reliable range management for electric vehicles. This is only possible because MB.OS has access to all vehicle data such as state of charge and energy consumption – underlining the strategic rationale of combining proprietary assets with selected partnerships.

Mercedes-Benz will further expand its infotainment features with new partnerships for leading video, gaming and productivity applications. MB.OS will open up a new dimension of in-car gaming through Antstream for arcade games. In-car video conferencing solutions will be expanded by adding the popular services Webex and Zoom. In addition, leading dedicated content from Tencent will serve the specific customer preferences in China even better.

A precursor to MB.OS will already be available in the new E-Class starting in 2023 with the third generation of MBUX. A new MBUX API for Android allows the installation of third-party apps, offering a better user experience compared to mirrored apps.

¹All Generation 2020 MBUX (NTG7) vehicles with navigation in connect markets except China, Japan and Korea. Series: 223, 206, 295, 297, 296, 294, 254, 232, 177 (from production 12/2022, model year 22/2), W247 (from production 12/2022, model year 22/2), V167 (from production 12/2022, model year 22/2).

Advancing automated driving

Offering flexible upgrades

Unlocking financial opportunity

The company is confident that this strategic approach to software and hardware development will be the basis for lifetime revenues as well as additional contributions. Already in 2022, Mercedes-Benz generated more than 1 billion euro in software-enabled revenues with products and services such as navigation, Live Traffic or online map updates.

Further down the road, the company expects total software-enabled revenues coming from MB.CONNECT and MB.DRIVE to grow to a low-to-mid single-digit billion euro figure by mid-decade; evolving to a high single-digit billion euro figure by the end of the decade. As of today, the company is on track to exceed its own goal of 1 billion euro EBIT from digital services in 2025, which is already part of the existing profit targets.

Software will become a substantial part of the company’s product development process and investment plan, with 25 percent of R&D budget allocated to software by mid-decade. The Group’s midterm investment reduction goals will not be affected.

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