People feel strongly about Google Glass, whether you feel strongly that it’s the wave of the future or that it will get your face punched in. Mercedes is apparently teaming up with Google to develop what might be a rather pointless app.
For those unfamiliar, Google Glass is basically just farming out your phone’s camera and display functions to your face. And Mercedes also seems to believe it’ll be useful as a GPS on your face:
The first application is a navigation program that allows you to enter an address through Google Glass, get in your car, plug in your phone, and then the destination is transferred to the in-dash navigation system. Once you’ve arrived near the restaurant/bar/nightclub/BBQ joint and unplug your phone, the system re-transfers the data back to Glass to complete the journey.
First of all, kudos to Mercedes for realizing that driving with these things on your face is a terrible idea. Secondly… is there a reason your phone can’t do this, again?
This looks to be useful in, say, an unfamiliar city but, again, why do you need Google Glass to do it? Especially since for the entire system to work, you already need a smartphone anyway? Why should you slap something like Google Glass on your face? Is it really that inconvenient to look at a screen?
Of course, the entire idea of this system is less about efficiency and more about giving the kind of person who buys a Mercedes as an excuse to tell you about the Mercedes that they own the same opportunity with Google Glass. They don’t admit it, but that’s the idea. And, if we’re being honest, it lends credence to this whole “punching the face” side of this debate.