In-Car Facebook: Making Mercedes Drivers Near You Concentrate Less

Everything comes with Facebook integration these days: phones, TVs, probably even a fridge somewhere. But why stop at the home? Mercedes Benz has announced in-car Facebook because, y’know, drivers need some casual distraction.

The tie-in with Facebook started up six months ago, reports Reuters, but Mercedes already have working prototypes. Facebook Vice President of Partnerships and Platform Marketing Dan Rose, told Reuters:

“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.”

Of course, they’re proceeding with some caution: don’t expect to be able to type out a lengthy status while you drive. Instead, the Facebook application displays a variety of standard, pre-written posts that a driver can publish on Facebook — using something a bit like the BMW iDrive system, perhaps?

More interestingly, if a particular destination is already entered into the car’s navigation system, you’ll be able to automatically publish a status update mentioning that you’re en route, along with an estimated time of arrival based on the current traffic patterns. It will also provide a list of places along the route that your friends have liked: restaurants, coffee shops, that kind of thing. Hopefully not bars. Please not bars.

Reuters claim that, by 2013, this will be standard on all Mercedes models with an on-board computer. Then you’ll be able to bask in a sea of information about where your Merc-driving friends are headed. Just what I always wanted. [Reuters; Image: David Villarreal Fernández]