Accessing Facebook on the road is about to get a little easier with the social network to be integrated into a car's visual display unit.
Luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz USA is set to unveil the new addition at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, but drivers will only get a limited version of the social network.
The application in the Mercedes will be restricted to location-based services that will centre on friends and businesses, and will be akin to using a standard navigation system.
With the recent advancements in onboard technology, the integration of Facebook into the Mercedes was a logical step, according to Dan Rose, Facebook's vice president of partnerships and platform marketing.
"Now that cars have screens that are intelligent, you would expect that more and more car manufacturers will want to make those screens capable of allowing people to connect with their friends and take advantage of the social context that comes along with that," Rose told Reuters.
Drivers will be able to alert friends of a destination they are travelling to, as well as select nearby places that have been 'liked' by those in their network. The application will also allow the driver to see which friends are nearby.
The Mercedes Facebook integration is just one of a number of applications available in the car's mbrace2 telematics system. Google and Yelp — an online city guide — are also part of the system that is displayed on a high-resolution screen and powered by a high-speed wireless internet connection.
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