vectra

Read an online article that says the nav system in the new E will, for the first time, have the ability to be controlled using the Linguatronic voice-activated control system... cool! Here's the link, however, it was one small paragraph about 3/4 through the article (3rd paragraph from the bottom) and did not give further details.

http://ca.autos.yahoo.com/cd/prvw/pr...enzeclass.html

Silver_Lana

I think this is a sign of Mercedes Benz starting to pay attention to the competition and meeting and hopefiully exceeding the challenge. The Infiniti Q45 is one of the main competitors to the E Class and it has the option of Voice activated Navigation, Audio Control, Climate control and the like. So I for one am very glad this is happening.
I hope it works as well as the Q45's voice system.

JamE55

This sounds like the new Infinity commercial. If you have seen the new infinity their top of the line car it also has voice activated control system. hhhhmmm

Brian Yee

....No; it doesn't remind me of the Infinity commercial. MBZ has got to change the name of that system (LINGUAtronic??! yeeeesh!).....Gets my peverted mind going every time I read it.

Silver_Lana

The thing here is that MB had this first!
They however appear to have made it available to work only with the Cell Phone option.
Too bad Infiniti beat them to the punch in advertising... also the RADAR guided cruise control was out my MB first too.... and LEXUS just advertised it on TV first.
Methinks the Advertising guys at MB should be replaced with a bunch who can connect to the younger more affluent MB potential customer while not alienating the Older established base of repeat buyers.
Just my $0.02

dcc

don't disagree with silver_lana's comments. do think mb $ best spent on the engineering side; particularly safety.

saw an article today re: our (americans) increasing tendency to rudeness. road rage mentioned all too frequently. perhaps overly optimistic, but believe informed consumers regardless of age will recognize safety benefit of buying mb.

Silver_Lana

true...
i do wish that MB spent a little more money on advertising the excellent features of their cars though....

Sean

What from I understand, you can operate the nav system from the radio controls and steeing wheel function...obviously we can communicate faster with our fingers than our voice. Voice Recognition systems are great...but it is still slow and not perfect.
Sean

Silver_Lana

Remember.... all natural input systems are still in their infancy and they are just basically voice patterm matchers. That will improve as time goes on byt i have to say.. its a lot better tha i thought it would be.
Too bad nobody ever reviews this sort of thing in their magazines.
Oh well....

Sean

Generally with voice systems, there are so many inputs that one would get frustrated, if your stereo is on, you have to turn it off, if you want to use voice command you have to press a button first...whats the point? I believe that the new Motorola V66 phone now available has voice comand built into the actual phone, but it does not work once docked into the car unless you opt for the mercedes voice comand option.
Sean

Silver_Lana

Would you really want your Navigation system taking directions from Marilin Manson? "Highway to HELL!!!!!" from the Radio or a CD (if youre into that.. ) but the point is the system has to filter out your command from a sea of noise... and the button is just a way to the system to know to start filtering or actively listening for command input.