Twitter-Controlled Car: Turns Out You Can Drive in 140 Characters or Less

Mercedes Benz engineers are developing a system to control cars via Twitter, and they seem to have nailed it.

I must admit when I first saw this video I immediately thought it was fake. First of all, the prototype car was an undoubtedly expensive Mercedes Benz CL 550; you’d think they’d use a more disposable car for their tests. You barely get a clear shot of the car, much less what’s inside, and the people who shot the video also didn’t care to elaborate about how or why they’re doing it. Here’s the video:

However, a simple Google search proved me wrong. Mercedes Benz will be hosting a promotional “Tweet Race” Contest on Feb 2-4 2011. The Twitter account of the prototype car in the video is protected, and I’m not sure if Twitter users who join the contest will be able to control the cars directly.

But if you look at at the recent tweets of Mercedes Benz engineer Werner Scherenberg– the bald man in the video – you’ll see that he sent what appear to be commands to the Twitter account of the prototype car, such as ignition_on, volume_up, or more complicated ones like back7_left85_back7 and autobots_roll_out. Okay I made that last one up. But you never know. Here’s hoping we’ll get a more in-depth look at how the system works.

[via Shave Magazine and Mercedes Benz Facebook Page]