'Hey Mercedes' - Daimler takes on Silicon Valley with hi-tech A-Class

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Daimler's new Mercedes A-Class, unveiled on Friday, includes the German automaker's own machine-learning and voice recognition technology in one of the industry's boldest attempts so far to take on Silicon Valley's finest. The Mercedes "MBUX" dashboard system to be rolled out across the lineup is about as capable at understanding what you say - and more importantly what you mean - as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri or Alphabet's Google Assistant. Its debut comes as carmakers are embroiled in a tech arms race, raising questions about the ultimate profitability of new services that often duplicate those available on smartphones. Daimler itself warned on Thursday that 2018 profit growth would be dampened by technology investment. Carmakers, especially premium manufacturers, are resisting the encroachment of tech giants on several fronts including autonomous driving and connected services - whose commercial potential multiplies with voice recognition and assistance.