When Mercedes says they want you to get personal with your car, they aren’t fooling around. Just recently Mercedes-Benz USA and Hughes Telematics, Inc. have launched mbrace, a new telematics offering that brings an unprecedented level of connectivity to Mercedes-Benz drivers and begins the process of allowing them to customize their in-vehicle experiences to fit their daily needs. The system very seriously personifies "connected services" by allowing drivers to connect with their vehicles via an iPhone or BlackBerry, and remotely locking or unlocking their vehicles, locating them in crowded parking lots or on city streets through a map representation on their smart phones and a whole lot more.

The flexibility of combining HTI's platform with today's leading smartphone offerings allows for a continual stream of in-vehicle innovation throughout the life of a vehicle's ownership. The mbrace system offers 18 features (five of which are part of a premium package) aggregated in the categories of safety & security, navigation & destination planning and convenience. The services can be accessed quickly and easily from within the vehicle or from any computer through a personalized web portal. The only thing the system doesn’t seem to allow you to do is drive the car via the handset. Won’t that be something?

[Autoblog]