Google, Mercedes-Benz announce long-term strategic partnership for navigation

Mercedes-Benz (MBGYY) and Google (GOOGL) announced a long-term strategic partnership to "further accelerate auto innovation and create the industry’s next-generation digital luxury car experience." The companies stated: "With this partnership, Mercedes-Benz will be the first automaker to build its own branded navigation experience based on new in-car data and navigation capabilities from Google Maps Platform. This will give the luxury automaker access to Google’s leading geospatial offering, including detailed information about places, real-time and predictive traffic information, automatic rerouting, and more. By embedding these features into the upcoming Mercedes-Benz Operating System, customers will be able to enjoy a superior navigation experience, thanks to easy usability and outstanding graphics on the car’s high-resolution screen. To help enrich the user experience, the companies will bring the YouTube app into the Mercedes-Benz infotainment system. In addition, Mercedes-Benz will use Google Maps data to enable assisted driving features such as automatic speed adjustments before intersections, roundabouts or curves."