Mercedes-Benz presents new COMAND Online features at CeBIT show

In future, more comprehensive traffic information will be relayed to the vehicle more rapidly. The navigation system will be able to inform the Mercedes driver of traffic holdups at an early stage, so that he can quickly adapt his route planning according to the current traffic conditions.

In this way, Mercedes-Benz is taking the quality of traffic information and its use in the vehicle to a new level. This has been made possible thanks to cooperation between Daimler AG, TomTom and Deutsche Telekom.

Mercedes-Benz Live Traffic: more up-to-date information thanks to real-time traffic data

In future, the latest traffic information such as tailback reports, current traffic density, traffic holdups or travel warnings will be sent to the vehicle in real time by means of Mercedes-Benz Live Traffic. Deutsche Telekom is making a communication infrastructure available for this purpose which has been developed specifically for Mercedes-Benz. The company will install a communication module in its vehicles which provides constant connectivity with the Cloud. The Machine-to-Machine (M2M) SIM chip integrated into the communication module takes care of the mobile data transfer.

Real-time information on the current traffic situation is provided by TomTom with its HD Traffic service, which has emerged the winner in many comparative tests. Using this precise information, the COMAND navigation system is able to show the length and starting point of a tailback on the map to an accuracy of 100 metres, and to calculate improved dynamic route guidance with shorter travel times. The potential loss of time is automatically reflected in the arrival time displayed in real time by the COMAND Online navigation system. At once Mercedes-Benz Live Traffic functions as a real-time traffic reporter, making a direct contribution to superior data quality.

In parallel with the reception of up-to-date traffic information, the vehicle anonymises its own traffic data and sends it to the TomTom traffic data centre every two minutes. This centre combines information from all sources on the current traffic conditions and transmits the results. Mercedes-Benz will soon be offering this service in its new vehicle models, and plans to equip most models with Live Traffic by the end of this year. For the first time Mercedes-Benz drivers using COMAND Online will be able to benefit from the service free of charge for three years in Germany, the UK, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg and Austria.