"Mercedes take me home" and "Augmented Reality"
#1
"Mercedes take me home" and "Augmented Reality"
Not sure if this adds to confusion, helps explain things, or other...
I think the link I remember seeing and misremember it having a nice production time-line is here:
http://www.whnet.com/4x4/radios.html
It has some interesting stuff which I think implies that all the old radio/comand/nav (cd based) was supplied by Bosch/Blaupunkt... The M-class dvd is alpine... there's the announcement that the E-class is HarmonKardon/Becker which makes sense given the HK audio and the Junish 2002 press release announcing the contract... but I had heard that it was going to be the same as the M-class... maybe that is misinformation... Maybe the problems with HK has caused them to move to the M-class Alpine unit for the E-class... Maybe that's why the retrofit is so hard... they planned for HK... HK couldn't deliver... they have a back-up plan to switch to Alpine... the retrofit becomes complicated... They can't announce any of this because it is super-sensitive and they are just pursuing back-up plans and can't just completely nuke a relationship with a supplier... I have NO IDEA REALLY - THIS IS JUST SPECULATION... Don't quote me on any of this...
Another link: see http://www.whnet.com/4x4/vrm.html - the voice-recognition thing. This link points to the Voice recognition module being integrated into the whole COMAND system... not just the phone... so if you hit the lever, and come up with "Mercedes, take me home" it'll set up the Nav to just do that... not just the "Phone home"-thing we all expect...
Then there are links to the whole etak traffic info stuff being integrated into the nav...
So perhaps all these delays are all related to the whole COMAND fiasco... If they come up in the end with a well integrated COMAND/Voice recognition system with DVD-nav, I'll be pretty happy... As long as it's on time for July... (vary hard to say...)
I still have no idea if it will be the HK/Becker system, the Bosch/Blaupunkt system, or the Alpine...
Could be a lot of the "no-information" from MB stems from them looking into alternatives to the HK announced deal... It could very easily be the "supplier problems" excuse that we have heard has caused them to look into alternatives...
Oh, who knows?
I spend way too much time trying to find out the right and timely information. I just hope they get their act together by the end of the month...
-NavNut
I think the link I remember seeing and misremember it having a nice production time-line is here:
http://www.whnet.com/4x4/radios.html
It has some interesting stuff which I think implies that all the old radio/comand/nav (cd based) was supplied by Bosch/Blaupunkt... The M-class dvd is alpine... there's the announcement that the E-class is HarmonKardon/Becker which makes sense given the HK audio and the Junish 2002 press release announcing the contract... but I had heard that it was going to be the same as the M-class... maybe that is misinformation... Maybe the problems with HK has caused them to move to the M-class Alpine unit for the E-class... Maybe that's why the retrofit is so hard... they planned for HK... HK couldn't deliver... they have a back-up plan to switch to Alpine... the retrofit becomes complicated... They can't announce any of this because it is super-sensitive and they are just pursuing back-up plans and can't just completely nuke a relationship with a supplier... I have NO IDEA REALLY - THIS IS JUST SPECULATION... Don't quote me on any of this...
Another link: see http://www.whnet.com/4x4/vrm.html - the voice-recognition thing. This link points to the Voice recognition module being integrated into the whole COMAND system... not just the phone... so if you hit the lever, and come up with "Mercedes, take me home" it'll set up the Nav to just do that... not just the "Phone home"-thing we all expect...
Then there are links to the whole etak traffic info stuff being integrated into the nav...
So perhaps all these delays are all related to the whole COMAND fiasco... If they come up in the end with a well integrated COMAND/Voice recognition system with DVD-nav, I'll be pretty happy... As long as it's on time for July... (vary hard to say...)
I still have no idea if it will be the HK/Becker system, the Bosch/Blaupunkt system, or the Alpine...
Could be a lot of the "no-information" from MB stems from them looking into alternatives to the HK announced deal... It could very easily be the "supplier problems" excuse that we have heard has caused them to look into alternatives...
Oh, who knows?
I spend way too much time trying to find out the right and timely information. I just hope they get their act together by the end of the month...
-NavNut
Last edited by NavNut; 03-14-2003 at 02:41 PM.