Mercedes-Benz Working With Microsoft For An ‘In Car Office’

Mercedes-Benz spends millions of dollars on research and development every single day. One of the many ongoing projects that the German carmaker is involved in is called 'In Car Office'. Partnering with tech giant Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz is working to integrate Microsoft Exchange support, work calendar, to-do list and contacts in its cars. The idea is not to get you a workplace inside the wagon. Instead, it is to enable you to be more productive during your commute.

In Car Office technology will use data from the connected account and suggest calls you might need to make, or places that you might want to visit. While the voice activation system will take commands to call whoever you want to, it will also entertain verbal inputs to control the in-built navigation system. Since the navigation system is synced with the work calendar, it will already have all the addresses that you will need on your way.

The project definitely sounds like it could reduce distraction as well as the manual input required for tasks which people usually try to tackle over long commutes during business hours.

The development of In Car Office is in its final stages and the technology is slated to make its debut in the first half of 2017.

Earlier this year, Swedish carmaker Volvo joined hands with Microsoft to bring Office 365 functionality to its cars. The principle behind the project was the same: to inject productive time into people's life while on the go.