Mercedes-Benz starts shipping Liquid AI's on-device models to the 2027 E-Class and CLE in North America

Mercedes-Benz has started putting Liquid AI's foundation models into customer cars in North America, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on November 5 and relayed by AI Weekly and PYMNTS. AI Weekly says an over-the-air update that began in October installs the models on 2027 E-Class and CLE vehicles, where they run on the car's own hardware instead of calling a remote server. The Journal's original article could not be consulted for this piece, so the details below rely on those secondary reports and on the companies' earlier announcements.

What the update does

The models run on MB.OS, Mercedes-Benz's in-house operating system, and handle speech recognition, language understanding and reasoning inside the vehicle, on third- and fourth-generation MBUX infotainment hardware. When the partnership was announced in April, both companies said the embedded models would extend the MBUX Virtual Assistant, covering voice control, vehicle functions and contextual understanding, and would complement the cloud-based language models Mercedes already uses rather than replace them.

Liquid AI, a spinout from MIT led by chief executive Ramin Hasani, argues that keeping processing on the device lowers latency, makes responses more consistent and avoids constant data exchange with the cloud. PYMNTS reports that the assistant is meant for tasks such as adjusting climate and infotainment, not for driving. Jason Hoff, who heads Mercedes-Benz North America, told the Journal that freer conversation with the car is a priority for customers, according to PYMNTS.

Rollout and open questions

According to AI Weekly and the Belgian site Tinynews, the 2027 S-Class, GLC Electric and GLE are due to follow in the second quarter of 2027. The April announcement listed a much wider set of North American models with compatible MBUX hardware, and had targeted a first production deployment as early as the second half of 2026, a goal the October update appears to meet. Tinynews notes that no availability date has been confirmed for European markets.

Several points remain unclear. Neither company has said which chip runs the models, as AI Weekly points out, nor how the assistant splits work between local and cloud models in practice. Performance claims about speed and privacy come from the companies and have not been independently tested. The rollout also lands as Mercedes cuts its annual outlook and pushes AI across its business as part of an efficiency drive, PYMNTS reports, citing the Journal.