SAN FRANCISCO: At restaurants, at movies and at the office, checking
Facebook has become a regular habit for many of the internet social
network's more than 800 million users.
Now that habit has reached a new frontier: the automobile.
Mercedes-Benz
USA is bringing Facebook to its cars, with a special version of the
service that is built-in to a new in-vehicle telematics system that will
be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
Accessing Facebook on the road is not the exactly the same as using
the social network on a personal computer or a smartphone. The version
of Facebook offered in Daimler AG's Mercedes is stripped down to a
limited set of features, specially designed for drivers and centered
around the locations of friends and businesses.
But according to
Facebook Vice President of Partnerships and Platform Marketing Dan Rose,
the Mercedes version of Facebook reflects the social networking
service's expansion to a growing list of settings where screens and
internet connections are available.
"Now that cars have screens
that are intelligent, you would expect that more and more car
manufacturers will want to make those screens capable of allowing people
to connect with their friends and take advantage of the social context
that comes along with that," Rose said in an interview.
"One of
the core things that people do on their screens in the car is GPS
navigation and the ability to see which of your friends are nearby is
something we think will be really interesting for people."
He
noted Facebook is also increasingly being integrated into televisions,
with various TV manufacturers expected to showcase built-in Facebook
integration at CES. DirectTV will show off a new social TV app with
Facebook capabilities at CES, allowing people to share what they are
watching and to add commentary.
But unlike television sets,
offering Facebook in motor vehicles involves critical safety
considerations, particularly at a time when lawmakers and safety
advocates are increasingly focused on distracted driving.
Robert
Policano, Mercedes' Product Manager for Telematics Services said the
service is no more distracting than a standard in-car navigation system
or radio. Any Facebook activity that requires a user to enter text is
disabled while the car is in motion, he said.
The Facebook
application displays a variety of standard, pre-written postings that a
driver can publish on Facebook with quick taps or turns of a knob.
If a particular destination is already entered into the car's
navigation system, the driver can automatically publish a Facebook
posting stating they are en route to that destination, along with an
estimated time of arrival, based on the current traffic patterns.
Drivers can also quickly access a list of friends that are nearby, or
restaurants in the vicinity that their friends have "liked" on Facebook.
The Mercedes Facebook offering is the result of a collaboration
between the two companies that started about six months ago, according
to Policano. A Mercedes engineering team based in Palo Alto actually built the Facebook application, with input from Facebook on various aspects.
Facebook is one of several specially designed apps, including Google
Inc and Yelp, that Mercedes drivers can flip between by turning a knob.
The apps are part of Mercedes new mbrace2 telematics system, which
features a high-resolution color screen near the dashboard and a
high-speed wireless Internet connection.
The mbrace2 system will
be available with the launch of the 2013 SL-Class Mercedes in the
Spring. The company plans to make it a standard feature on all Mercedes
2013 models that will roll out throughout the year.
One popular
Facebook feature that Mercedes drivers will not get, however, is the
ability to play social games such as Zynga Inc's Farmville. Mercedes'
version of Facebook does not support third-party apps.
