Hands On With Mercedes-Benz mBrace2

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Mercedes-Benz showed off the latest iteration of its telematics and infotainment system, mBrace2, at CES in Las Vegas.

The system simply expands and enhances what Mercedes-Benz's system has been doing for the last few years, integrating Facebook, Google Point of Interest searches and now Google Street View into the current COMAND interface.

There's a full-scale browser controlled by the central COMAND knob, but as you can see in the video below, a combination of spotty data access (the CES show floor needs its own spectrum) and some odd user interface characteristics makes for a clunky experience.

Data issues aside, the biggest problem is using the outmoded concept of a pointer to select things on the screen. That's fine for PCs, but using a five-way controller to pan and click around a page is infuriatingly frustrating. We hope that the kinks get ironed out before mBrace2 arrives on the all-new SL and the rest of the 2013 Mercedes-Benz lineup.

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