Peeble & MB

[mhectorgato]

http://www.worldcarfans.com/113122067794/mercedes-joins-the-smartwatch-fray-teams-up-with-pebble

As a result, Mercedes has updated their Digital DriveStyle app to enable it to communicate with Pebble smartwatches. The resulting system will be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show but Mercedes says it will enable users to view important information - such as fuel level, door-lock status and vehicle location - by just glancing at their watch. The company also says the app could alert drivers to upcoming obstacles - such as accidents and road construction - by vibrating the watch while the owner is driving.

[Architect]

That can be very good for pebble.

[Mike]

With heads up displays and voice announcements, I don’t think a watch is a viable information source in an automobile. Taking your eyes away from the road can not be a good thing.

[godefroi]

And even those are plenty distracting.

[Mike]

@godefroi

And even those are plenty distracting.

They might be, but voice and heads up are the choice for military jets.

[Duke_Nukem]

@Mike

With heads up displays and voice announcements, I don’t think a watch is a viable information source in an automobile. Taking your eyes away from the road can not be a good thing.

I’m going to turn my wrist which is attached to the hand hanging onto the steering wheel to see something, I’m thinking maybe not the best choice, but it will sell for no other reason then being a hipster status toy.

[godefroi]

@Mike

They might be, but voice and heads up are the choice for military jets.

True, better than the alternative, but jet pilots aren’t getting emails and texts and sports scores updates on their HUD.

Well, I hope, at least.

Note: I’ve never flown a fighter jet, and I don’t have a HUD in my car, so I don’t know what shows up on the displays.

[Duke_Nukem]

Voice in a fighter jet is an interesting thing as its only used for really bad stuff and its a little more complex then that as it uses a female voice (or it used to) as men tend to pay more attention to a female voice, but having been out of that game for awhile I’ve wondered about the influx of female pilots and how ‘voice’ changed because of that. Interfaces in fighter jets are very carefully designed with an concept you use every advantage you can, because if you don’t the other guy will and you might loose because of it. At the end of the day pilots used to turn some of it off as frankly it could be overwhelming. What do you really need to know and why and this problem is in our every day lives now. Do you really need to know sports scores while your making a lane change on the highway during rush hour, be a fighter pilot, turn the dam thing off.

[Brett]

On the Amp Hour podcast a week or so ago, Andrew Witte from Pebble was the guest, and mentioned in passing the Mercedes integration. If you real the press info above, it’s clear that most of those scenarios they’re enabling are while you’re external to the vehicle - Andrew explicitly mentioned the unlock as you approach scenario (which obviously only works within BT range). And the only “while driving” option they talk about is traffic alerts which do make sense to me.

The bigger issue in my view is the scenarios you all talk about are real distractions that aren’t Merc specific, but are possible, if you choose that. A more optimal solution might be to know you’re also paired to the car at a point in time so you filter out anything other than “critical” alerts and only use passive feedback rather than displayed data.