Daimler unveils new "Ask Mercedes" customer service chatbot

LISBON (Reuters) - German luxury car maker Daimler is set to combine a range of digital customer support experiments into a single voice-activated app that is available whether users are driving their cars, sitting at home or on the go.

Chief digital officer Sabine Scheunert said on Tuesday that Daimler will soon introduce a digital assistant called "Ask Mercedes" that ties together previous trial projects on platforms such as Google and Facebook.

Scheunert said "Ask Mercedes" will be available in several markets and languages immediately before being rolled out globally, without providing further details. Mercedes is one of Daimler's leading car brands.

The auto maker offers an increasing range of car-sharing and mobility services as well as supporting its traditional car line-up, she said.

"Ask Mercedes is a new cognitive assistant available any time to support customers in exploring all the functions of their Mercedes-Benz vehicles," Scheunert said during a presentation at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon.

Scheunert said the so-called "chatbot" will allow both existing and also potential customers to interact with Daimler services, day or night, using voice-activated commands or text-based chat.

Chatbots are software programmes which can respond to questions from users using a conversational approach.

Customers can pose questions to the Ask Mercedes app when it is installed in the company's recent model cars, or by using a smartphone version of the app or by speaking to a Google Assistant voice-activated electronics controller when they are at home.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard, editing by Pritha Sarkar)