Wireless Internet is Coming to Your Car!

Is wireless internet really coming to your car? Well, maybe not for a couple more years, but Mercedes-Benz claims it has successfully tested the world’s fully internet-based infotainment system.

Why is wireless internet important for future new cars? Because integrated technology like voice-activated controls, Bluetooth, navigation, maps, destinations and audio can be upgraded instantaneously. Finally, your infotainment technology will no longer be outdated when you buy a new car!

Called myCOMAND, the Mercedes-Benz system was built into a S-class prototype in Munich. The system runs on a 4G wireless high-speed, long-term evolution (LTE) network. Mercedes says its myCOMAND system produced a “shining” outcome: “all myCOMAND features prove smooth and enhanced performance, with high resolution and improved quality.”

Launched in 2008, the myCOMAND research project was created to give drivers a completely new internet-based infotainment experience. Using internet connectivity, says Mercedes-Benz, “all data and features and seamlessly kept fresh and current at all times…in one attractively designed user interface for easy and intuitive access.”

One of the major problems with wireless connectivity in cars has been access. That is, a mobile environment must be available everywhere you drive for the system to work. And, they’ve got to be fast.

Until now, most mobile networks in cars have been tested in lower bandwidths. Mercedes-Benz, however, tested its myCOMAND system using a cellular network with a higher 4G LTE bandwidth.

Mercedes says wireless network providers and technology experts do not expect this high bandwidth wireless internet coverage to be a reality “until a few years fromnow.”

In the myCOMAND road test, Mercedes researchers built a special LTE network and found the system needed from 8-10 times greater bandwidth than today’s telecommunications networks with the car was moving around 25 mph.

With the super fast LTE network in place, Mercedes found the myCOMAND system had significantly improved performance with brilliant resolution, smooth-running features, fast-loading maps, high-quality audio and excellent streaming video and street view images.

”In the areas of both information and entertainment, the entirely internet-based solution affords decisive advantages over traditional systems found in today’s vehicles,” says Johann Jungwirth, head of the Mercedes-Benz Research & Advanced Engineering Lab in Palo Alto, Calif.

How does myCOMAND work? Mercedes says the system automatically updates itself via the internet each time the engine starts. Plus, all retrieved data and information is continuously updated.

Mercedes-Benz says the most important new services of myCOMAND are:

Off-board Navigation. myCOMAND not only always works with the latest map, but also takes the traffic information available on the internet into account for route selection. Along with the conventional map display it is also possible to show satellite images. And destinations can be combined with up-to-the-minute data so the driver can easily find, for example, the cheapest gas station in the vicinity or along a route.

Trip Assist. This service offers up-to-date information and services in the car. The Trip Assist of myCOMAND shows, for example, the weather along the route and informs the user about the hotels and leisure facilities at the destination. Making hotel reservations, reserving a table at a restaurant or purchasing movie tickets from the car is no problem.

World Radio. Via the internet, you can tune to practically every radio station in the world while driving and search for stations by genre. Additionally, you can store your personal music library on the internet, which is then available anytime worldwide in the car.

Internet Telephony. Thanks to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), myCOMAND enables putting free or discounted phone calls, sending short messages and simultaneously transmitting voice and data.

Of course, a web browser additionally allows you to freely surf the Internet while the vehicle is parked.

As for design, Mercedes says myCOMAND is “attractively designed for intuitive operation.” The centrally arranged display, so Mercedes claims, has “brilliant resolution that is optimally positioned in the driver's field of vision so that he or she can better keep an eye on the road.”

Like Mercedes current COMAND system in its S-Class vehicles, the myCOMAND control is a rotary push button system designed into the central console. Mercedes hopes to connect its myCOMAND system with its “linguatronic” system to enable voice-activated functioning.

Mercedes says its myCOMAND system “lays the foundation for the optimal use of the internet in the car.” Finally! I’ve been waiting for the internet to come to my car for years. Bring it on, Mercedes!

Sheryll Alexander is a lifestyles writer based in Costa Mesa, Calif. Follow me! @sheryllalexande