I Tried Mercedes

I realized just how useful Mercedes-Benz’s new in-car AI assistant can be when I was driving a different car.

After testing the impressive new 2026 Mercedes CLA-Class in San Francisco, I flew back to New York, but then faced several hours of driving through a winter rainstorm. That’s when I realized I hadn’t changed my windshield wipers in forever—one of those little errands I always mean to do but always forget about until it’s too late—and that meant having less visibility than I wanted. 

That’s when I thought: Wouldn’t it be nice to hit a button on my steering wheel, ask the car to find an O’Reilly Auto Parts or an AutoZone or something nearby, then set a quick detour on my navigation system’s route? Then I could swap the wipers in the parking lot and be on my way. But I was in a far less sophisticated car than the new CLA sedan; doing any of that would’ve meant pulling over in a weird part of Newark, New Jersey and whipping out my iPhone for directions. 

Once you try an in-car AI assistant, as I did, you may want it to stick around.

At least, that is what Mercedes is betting on with the new MBUX Virtual Assistant. It’s a key feature in the already extremely high-tech CLA-Class, soon to be coming to other models in the family. 

Functionally, it’s not dissimilar to many in-car voice assistants: you either hit a button on the steering wheel or say “Hey, Mercedes” (or another “wake word” you set yourself), and then ask it stuff. But most cars with voice controls aren’t very smart. They generally want you to say commands that correspond to preset phrases, like “navigate to” or “call so-and-so.” You aren’t meant to converse with them.

But Mercedes has added multiple layers of AI and internet search capabilities to this system, including ChatGPT4o, Microsoft Bing Search and Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent for navigation. So when you say “Hey, Mercedes,” you can almost talk to it like it’s a person. 

In the video above, you’ll see how I asked the AI assistant all sorts of things, from how to control various functions on the car to what it thought about BMW. (It had nice things to say.) It’s casual, flexible and largely quite conversational. The system is included on the new CLA-Class, and like many features, its performance depends on having a good data connection. 

In one instance, I asked the AI assistant to find me some good burrito restaurants nearby. It did, and also gave me some ratings for each one using various review websites. Not bad. You can ask about traffic on your route. You can ask it to turn on the heated seats. You can ask it about the weather. And it can seek out all kinds of random information for you: while driving with a Wall Street Journal columnist earlier that day, I asked it what a subscription to the paper would cost, and it gave us an accurate answer. 

I also asked it what the greatest Mercedes-Benz of all time is, and it told me it was probably the 300 SL Gullwing—an assessment I’d certainly agree with. 

The AI assistant is a key part of MB.OS, Mercedes’ next-generation software system that debuts in the new CLA-Class. Like many other automakers, Mercedes has struggled with modern tech in many of its cars, but this new chip-to-cloud architecture promises more features, better speed, more frequent over-the-air software updates and a more cohesive, connected experience—a true software-defined vehicle. In the case of the MBUX Virtual Assistant, Mercedes says that it will get better with time, learning new things and even your personal preferences. It is an AI system, after all. 

This isn’t my first dalliance with in-car AI voice assistants. I tried several of them on various EVs in China this past year, and as is fitting with that country’s approach to AI, all of them were quite impressive. But Mercedes’ voice system is the first one I’ve tried in the West that feels on par with those. 

Will systems like these become more and more in demand in 2026 and beyond? All I can say is that I missed this one when it was gone, so maybe Mercedes is onto something here.

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com