Well, this morning I used the Hey Mercedes (MBUX) voice assistant in my car to set the navigation to drive to the office, (click here to read about why would someone pay for Mercedes-Benz maps when there is Google Maps for free) just like I do every day, but somehow yesterday’s morning it decided to call one of my contacts.
It was like 7:20 in the morning, so at least it was not one of those days when I decide to get an early head start and drive at 5 or 6 in the morning to the office. It was a bit awkward since it was a contact from work and I wasn’t fast enough to cancel the call, so I quickly got a call back from a colleague that didn’t have my mobile number saved. She understood and simply laughed..
The Hey Mercedes voice assistant is not perfect, but it’s great.
While this is obviously not perfect, the Hey Mercedes assistant is at least on my opinion way way better than our previous voice assistant and I now use it on a regular basis. It usually gets all normal commands right, but as a non-German native, I do happen to struggle with addresses of some of the 30-letter friendly street names in German.
I did try again next morning and it worked out as it should…
I knew that the system is usually right, but all it takes is one mistake for you to second guess using it. I was happy that next morning it worked out and I felt like going back to normal. Using the assistant for driving
Things that you can do with the MBUX Hey Mercedes Voice Assistant
The most obvious thing that you can do is control your navigation system, but there are many other things that you can do.
Here are some of the top commands from the Hey Mercedes Voice Assistant
- Change the colors of the lights inside your Mercedes
- Adjust the temperature of the AC
- Get a weather forecast
- Change radio stations/songs
- Turn on the heating on your seats
- Call your contacts
- Read your text messages
Even with mistakes, voice assistants are quite popular
It is impressive to see how voice assistants are every time more present in our lives. While voice control is not particularly new (apparently even in 1911 there were toys that responded to voice commands) voice assistants have picked extremely picked up in the last 5 years, led by products such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, as well as improvements in AI fueling the use cases of assistants.
I was even recently surprised to see my grandma using the google voice assistant on her smartphone to make a call. Although my grandma is somewhat tech-savvy, that’s for me already a sign of things getting truly mainstream.
Voice Assistants are more common that most people think
According to stats, nearly 112 million people, or one-third of the US population, used a voice assistant at least monthly on any device in 2019 (link to source). This is definitely impressive. Even for someone like me that barely can remember life before smartphones.
I’ve been using Alexa since the early days and it’s so embedded in my life that it’s rather a given than a question of it is there. From alarms, to lights, music, reminders, etc.…It usually works but also every once in a while, it makes mistakes, especially when searching songs. I actually once got late to work because my internet was down and my Alexa didn’t wake me up as usual. When I told that to my boss this, it didn’t sound crazy and he could relate.
With more usage, people get more used to them
Many times, if a voice assistant is not getting me, I’d rather try a few times instead of doing the commands manually which would be faster. I find it particularly interesting how this is an area of tech where many people seem to be ok with mistakes and see it as part of the progress, which is not the case for other types of technology. Besides it somehow just feels cooler to use the voice assistant, so people tend to try and try, which defeats the purpose of convenience of the voice assistant. Many times it’s even a bit of a game to see who Alexa or my Mercedes understands better (or at least with my mostly non-english native friends).
While every time more privacy concerns regarding voice assistants arise as they become more and more mainstream, I think these are risks similar to like the ones of many other connected devices and they will be sorted out (or not, depending on the country).
Voice Assistants are here to stay and the future looks bright
It’s crystal clear that voice assistants are here to stay and I’m excited to see the capabilities of voice assistants continue to grow. You’re likely using or seeing people use voice assistants through out your day, without you even realizing it unless you’re thinking about it. Next time this happens, think about the role they will continue to play in your life in the future and which use cases you could think off.
In case you get a random call from me, it might have been my Mercedes or my Alexa.
Out of curiosity…
