by Tanya Gazdik , December 21, 2016

Starting early next year, Mercedes-Benz will offer the integration of the Google Assistant on Google Home, a voice-activated personal assistant that makes it possible to interact with the vehicle from home.

The collaboration is part of the automaker’s long-term goal of leveraging technology to make everyday life more convenient for customers.

With this integration, Google Home users can send destinations to their Mercedes-Benz cars; set and activate heating and cooling systems within their vehicles; determine fuel and charge levels; check lock status as well as interact with their cars in order to lock doors and more — all from the comfort of their home.

Mercedes-Benz is one of the first automakers to combine the Google Assistant on Google Home with their vehicles.

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"In the last decade, we've seen a range of benefits when smart technology is combined with transportation," said Sajjad Khan, vice president of digital vehicle and mobility at Daimler, in a release. "This newest integration shows just how intelligent the car of the future will be, and we plan to roll out more applications as the year progresses that will make daily life even more accessible and convenient.”

The system is similar to offerings from other automakers including General Motors’ Onstar RemoteLink and Tesla’s Remote S, which also offer remote interaction with cars via a smartphone.

Streamlining the customer's digital lifestyle by connecting the car to the IoT has been a rapid evolution during the last few years. Mercedes-Benz launched the Companion App in 2015 to integrate contextual intelligence into customers' driving experience. In addition to door-to-door navigation, the Companion App uses machine learning to provide a personalized user experience by learning from customers' actions and their environment. It extends customers' existing behavior on their mobile phone seamlessly into Mercedes-Benz vehicles.