Mercedes just put in a bid for the worst idea ever by enabling you to stream yourself driving during those vital Teams meetings
For some people, you can never flex enough when it comes to showing how hard you work. Happily, such corporate apparatchiks can now demonstrate their commitment to the cause while driving a new Mercedes-Benz car. The brand has just announced an update to its support for in-car Teams, enabling live video of you driving along to to be fed to your co-Teams attendees.
For clarity, the reverse does not happen. If the car is moving, the feed from other Teams users is not displayed, with the in-car output then limited to audio.
"With this update, drivers can use the in-car camera while driving, allowing other participants to see them during a meeting. Given the brand’s focus on safety, the use of the camera abides by the laws of each country and has been approved for use on the move.
"To minimise distraction and maximise safety while driving, the meeting video stream turns off automatically as soon as the camera is activated. As a result, the driver will never see any shared screens or slides – and the camera can be turned off at any time," Mercedes says.
Mercedes itself says the driver won't be able to see other meeting attendees, and also claims the focus is on safety. So the assumption is presumably that the driver won't be engage visually with other attendees, look at the camera and so on.
With all that in mind, it's hard to imagine what value this feature has other than opening up the possibility for minor-to-major unintended video exposition ranging from nasal exploration to live streaming an accident to work colleagues.
The broader Mercedes Teams app probably is quite handy. According to Mercedes, the updated version, "has a function labelled 'Next Meetings' for upcoming appointments and enables quick access to frequent contacts.
"There’s also an expanded chat function that facilitates reading and writing messages. Integration of voice control for text input and the ability to jump directly from the calendar into a Teams meeting provide a seamless user experience."
So, it's really just the video streaming of a person driving a car that is hard to parse. Anyway, as part of the update, Merc will also be the first car maker to add generative AI via Microsoft 365 Copilot.
"This will be one of the world’s first application of its kind in a car and will help users prepare for upcoming meetings with the aid of advanced AI. Using voice prompts, drivers can summarise emails, retrieve or query client preferences and details, and manage daily tasks without distraction," Mercedes says. And given the impeccable reliability and accuracy record of AI models, I can't possibly imagine what could go wrong in a car-driving context.