Mercedes Adds Pebble Smartwatch to Its Roster of Integrated Wearables

While we’re still waiting for the day when we can finally ditch our car keys, Mercedes-Benz is inching closer to incorporating wearable tech into its cars. And the latest integration comes in the form of the Pebble smartwatch.

Just like the text, email, and phone call notifications the Pebble currently receives from Android and iOS devices, Mercedes has developed its own series of alerts and features that flow through the Digital DriveStyle app on the driver’s smartphone.

That allows the Pebble to show fuel level, vehicle location, and whether the car’s doors are locked when the driver is away from the vehicle. But they’re not incorporating remote locking or starting. At least, not yet.

Instead, Mercedes’ Silicon Valley lab focused on creating non-intrusive alerts and alternative controls when the driver is behind the wheel.

If there’s an accident or road construction up ahead, the Pebble will vibrate to notify the driver, rather than relying on the navigation screen. Additionally, the three buttons on the right side of the watch can be customized to trigger a driver’s favorite functions, including hazard reporting, skipping songs, auto-routing, and activating Siri on the iPhone to handle more complex tasks like sending a text or picking a playlist using voice commands.

Mercedes has already shown an interest in wearables, developing a prototype that incorporates Google Glass for “Door-to-Door Navigation”, allowing the driver to input a destination into Google Glass, have it transferred to the car when they get inside, and then back to Google’s geek goggles for walking directions.

“We definitely see wearable devices as another trend in the industry that is important to us,” Johann Jungwirth, the automaker’s North American R&D President & CEO, told WIRED when tested out its Google Glass integration earlier this year.

But like Google with Glass, Pebble is just beginning to give developers a shot at creating apps and expanding the functionality of their smartwatches. That means Mercedes had to hack together its own solution for integrating the Pebble with its app, so a version for consumers is still a ways out.

http://www.wired.com