At the Google I/O conference in San Fransisco, Mercedes Benz introduces the Drive Kit Plus featuring a new version of Digital DriveStyle App that utilizes Google Services to offer a thorough and all-encompassing navigation experience to the users. This will give their COMAND system a whole host of new capabilities.

The Drive Kit Plus system works based on smartphone integration. It connects to Google Services and brings up all the features to the vehicle display. the app can be controlled via the COMAND controller or by using the voice based intelligent personal assistant. This way you get all the amazing features of the Google Places API at your finger tip.

Now this is an infotainment feature that makes sense in a car. To be honest we still don’t get why would you need Facebook and Twitter while driving, but this map-based service can be of great use (see below). The Drive Kit Plus is available as an accessory for virtually all current Mercedes-Benz model series.

At the Google I/O event, Mercedes showcases this system with four new features:

• “Faster search, everywhere you go”: Whether it’s a street address or nearby restaurant, find your destination faster with the Google Places Autocomplete API, which predicts the most likely destinations as you type.
• “Preview destinations on-the-go”: Explore landmarks, parks, and storefronts from around the world with 360-degree Street View imagery and Google+ Local photos.
• “Know the hottest spots in town”: Radar View uses the Google Places API Radar Search and Heatmaps to guide you to the center of the action by visualizing areas with high concentrations of night clubs, restaurants and shopping centers.
• “Get live traffic conditions”: integration of Google’s traffic service, providing a color-coded overlay of real-time traffic conditions on a Google Map.