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Mercedes-Benz Adds Concierge Service to MBrace Mobile Telematics

Late last year Mercedes-Benz teamed up with Hughes Telematics to make a pretty cool application for iPhones and Blackberrys, allowing owners to unlock their cars remotely, find their cars in crowded lots, or use their phones to easily find a nearby dealer. All impressive things to show your friends when you're hanging out at the bar. But that was just Version 1.0.

Version 2.0 of MBrace includes all of that good stuff but also adds a new concierge service. Using this new feature, owners can call into the M-B Concierge service and the assistant on the other end can use the phone's GPS to deliver recommendations for restaurants and other entertainment, help with directions, or even provide a traffic update. If a future destination is decided, the concierge can then send relevant information to the car's navigation system, preloading it before the driver is even in the vehicle. That's pretty cool.

What's more, MBrace 2.0 allows for multiple accounts with programmable nicknames because, you know, a lot of Mercedes-Benz owners have more than one car and there's a good chance that other car could also be a Merc.

"Version 2.0 of the mbrace Mobile Application takes the convenience and connectivity of mbrace further than ever before, allowing customers to access connected services anywhere, anytime," said Sascha Simon, who heads up advanced product planning for MBUSA. "Imagine you're away from your car talking on your iPhone to Mercedes-Benz Concierge. The agent can provide you with a great restaurant suggestion and simultaneously send the destination both to your iPhone and into your car. That's what makes the system so great: the flexible architecture allows us to continually add new features as mobile technology evolves, keeping us on the cutting edge of innovation and connected services for our customers. This latest mobile application is a perfect example of that, and we will continue to add more features and connectivity on an ongoing basis."

The new update is now available, and Hughes and Mercedes-Benz promise even more innovation in the future.

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