Mercedes-Benz has announced a multi-year partnership with Liquid AI to deploy embedded, on-device artificial intelligence across its vehicles in North America, with an initial production rollout targeted for the second half of 2026.
The agreement applies to models equipped with third- and fourth-generation MBUX systems and aims to improve real-time voice interaction, language understanding and reasoning capabilities directly within the vehicle, without relying on cloud connectivity.
“With this strategic collaboration, we’re scaling embedded intelligence in the vehicle and improving AI speech capabilities for our customers in North America,” said Jörg Burzer, member of the board of management at Mercedes-Benz Group AG. “By advancing on-device speech, language understanding and reasoning with Liquid AI, we’re laying the foundation for the next generation of intuitive and multimodal in-car experiences, with a clear path toward initial production deployment as early as the second half of 2026.”
The companies indicated the technology will be built on the Mercedes-Benz Operating System and integrate Liquid AI’s foundation models directly into the vehicle. The models are designed to process speech locally, reducing latency and enabling more consistent performance in everyday driving conditions.
“The software-defined vehicle is one of the most consequential deployments of AI in the physical world, and Mercedes-Benz has approached it with exactly the rigor it demands,” said CEO of Liquid AI Ramin Hasani. “Liquid’s models are built to run on the hardware already inside the vehicle, delivering intelligence that is fast, private and sovereign without depending on the cloud.”
The partnership will complement existing cloud-based large language model systems, creating a hybrid approach to in-vehicle AI. Both companies indicated they will explore additional areas of collaboration as development progresses.
