Digital Audit: Mercedes-Benz Group AG

Audit Phase: Digital (Digital / Technology Forensics) Subject Entity: Mercedes-Benz Group AG (FWB: MBG) Registered Address: Mercedesstraße 120, 70372 Stuttgart, Germany Audit Date: June 2026 Evidence Base: Published corporate disclosures and press releases, vendor and partner announcements, automotive and technology trade press, Israeli business press (Globes, Calcalist, Times of Israel), NGO research (Who Profits, AFSC Investigate), and digital-rights/privacy reporting (Mozilla Foundation). All factual claims are drawn from publicly available sources cited in the End Notes.

Scope and directionality note: Digital assesses the digital/technology nexus to Israel. The serious case is the provision of surveillance, digital, data, or cyber technology to the Israeli state, military, or security services. The reverse direction - Mercedes-Benz procuring technology from Israeli-origin vendors, or investing in / operating R&D with Israeli technology firms - is recorded explicitly with its direction and weighted distinctly from provision-to-state. No transitive guilt is imputed: an Israeli vendor’s other clients, its founders’ military backgrounds, or a hyperscaler’s separate Israeli-government contracts are not attributed to Mercedes-Benz. US-entity relationships (Microsoft, Google, AWS, NVIDIA, Intel) are not Israeli-origin and are noted for completeness or for documented upstream Israeli-origin dependencies only.

Enterprise Technology Stack & Vendor Relationships

Strategic Hyperscale & Compute Partners (Direction: Mercedes-Benz as customer)

Mercedes-Benz’s principal disclosed enterprise and connected-vehicle technology relationships are with US-headquartered entities.

Microsoft - In June 2023 Mercedes-Benz announced integration of ChatGPT via the Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service into the MBUX in-vehicle Voice Assistant, beginning with an opt-in US beta of more than 900,000 vehicles and subsequently rolled out as a free update to over three million MBUX-equipped vehicles.¹² The relationship is contracted with the US parent entity; Microsoft operates an Israel Central data-centre region (near Tel Aviv), but no public evidence was identified that Mercedes-Benz workloads are configured to that region.¹

Google / Google Cloud - Mercedes-Benz announced a long-term strategic collaboration with Google to build a branded navigation experience on the Google Maps Platform embedded into MB.OS.³ On 13 January 2025 the two announced an expansion: the MBUX Virtual Assistant gains Google Cloud’s Automotive AI Agent, built on Gemini on Vertex AI, debuting in the new Mercedes-Benz CLA (the first MB.OS vehicle) in 2025.³⁴ Google Cloud operates a Tel Aviv (me-west1) region that also underpins its Israeli-government “Project Nimbus” contract; no public evidence was identified that Mercedes-Benz workloads are assigned to me-west1, and Mercedes-Benz has no documented role in Project Nimbus.³⁴

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and NVIDIA are additional US-origin compute partners. In June 2020 Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA announced a partnership to build a software-defined computing architecture for automated driving across the future fleet, built on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform (DRIVE AGX Orin), with rollout from 2024.⁵ NVIDIA completed its acquisition of Israeli networking firm Mellanox Technologies (founded and headquartered in Yokneam Illit, Israel) for ~$6.9bn in April 2020; Yokneam is now NVIDIA’s primary hub for InfiniBand/Spectrum interconnect IP.⁶ This is an upstream Israeli-origin hardware dependency within the NVIDIA supply relationship, not a directly procured Israeli-vendor relationship by Mercedes-Benz.⁵⁶

Israeli-Origin Enterprise Software & Cybersecurity Vendors (Direction: Mercedes-Benz as customer)

Mercedes-Benz does not publicly disclose its enterprise cybersecurity vendor roster. No public evidence was independently identified confirming a named licensing, subscription, or integration relationship between Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Israeli-origin cybersecurity firms - including Check Point, SentinelOne, CyberArk, Wiz, Claroty, NICE, or Verint. The absence of evidence reflects corporate non-disclosure; it neither confirms nor excludes such relationships. This is a principal evidence gap in this domain.

Automotive Supply Chain - Israeli-Origin Technology (Direction: Mercedes-Benz as customer)

Mobileye (Intel subsidiary): Mobileye is an Israeli computer-vision/ADAS company (founded in Jerusalem; acquired by Intel in 2017). No current, named supply contract between Mercedes-Benz and Mobileye was identified in public sources; primary reporting documents Mercedes-Benz developing automated-driving systems with NVIDIA and Bosch rather than with Mobileye, while BMW is the automaker publicly aligned with the Intel/Mobileye camera platform.⁵⁷ No public evidence of a renewed Mercedes-Benz–Mobileye supply relationship was identified.

Argus Cyber Security (Israeli automotive cybersecurity, acquired by Continental AG in 2017): Continental is a Tier-1 supplier to Mercedes-Benz and continues to operate Argus as an integrated automotive-cybersecurity unit. No direct, named Mercedes-Benz–Argus relationship was identified; any exposure would be an indirect Tier-2 supply-chain dependency. No public evidence identified of a direct relationship.

Upstream Security and Karamba Security (Israeli automotive cybersecurity): No public evidence identified of a named Mercedes-Benz procurement or integration relationship with either.

Surveillance, Biometrics & Retail Technology

Facial Recognition & Biometric Systems

No public evidence was identified of Mercedes-Benz deploying facial-recognition, gait-analysis, or behavioural-analytics technology of Israeli origin (e.g. Oosto/AnyVision, BriefCam, Corsight) at dealerships, plants, or corporate sites.

It is documented, however, that Mercedes-Benz’s own Research & Development Center in Tel Aviv has worked on biometric authentication as a stated focus area (see “Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint” below for the directional analysis).⁸⁹ This is in-house automotive driver-authentication R&D, not provision of biometric surveillance technology to any state body; no public evidence links this work to Israeli state, military, or security applications.

Predictive Analytics & Workforce Monitoring

No public evidence was identified of Mercedes-Benz deploying Israeli-origin social-media-monitoring, sentiment-analysis, or workforce-surveillance tools. (For Israeli-origin mobility-prediction technology that Mercedes-Benz invested in and embedded in a consumer app, see Anagog under “Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint.”)

Third-Party & Bundled Surveillance Deployment

No public evidence identified of Israeli-origin surveillance or biometric technology reaching Mercedes-Benz indirectly via managed-service or bundled enterprise platforms.

Cloud Infrastructure, Data Residency & Sovereign Cloud Participation

Mercedes-Benz Data Centre Operations in Israel

No public evidence was identified that Mercedes-Benz operates, leases, or co-locates data-centre infrastructure in Israel. Mercedes-Benz does operate a software/R&D site in Tel Aviv (Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Tel Aviv Ltd.), addressed in the R&D section; that is an engineering office rather than a hosting facility.⁸⁹

Project Nimbus & Israeli State Cloud Programmes

Mercedes-Benz is an automotive manufacturer, not a cloud-infrastructure provider, and has no documented role in Project Nimbus (the Israeli government’s ~$1.2bn cloud contract to Google Cloud and AWS) or any comparable Israeli state cloud programme. Its hyperscale partners (Google Cloud, AWS) are Nimbus primary contractors, but no public evidence connects Mercedes-Benz’s commercial workloads to that programme.³⁴

Connected Vehicle Data Pipeline - Israeli Infrastructure Exposure

Mercedes-Benz vehicles collect and transmit extensive data through the Mercedes me / connected-vehicle platform - including precise geolocation, driving-behaviour data, voice recordings from the MBUX Voice Assistant, vehicle sensory data (audio/visual/electronic), and inferred behavioural profiles.¹⁰ The Mozilla Foundation’s Privacy Not Included review rated Mercedes-Benz “Super creepy” and could not confirm it meets minimum security standards, noting that Mercedes states it can share data with “law enforcement, government agencies … where disclosure is deemed reasonably necessary.”¹⁰

A documented Israeli-origin component sits in this pipeline: in January 2019 Daimler partnered with Otonomo (an Israeli connected-vehicle data-services company with R&D in Herzliya) to integrate Otonomo’s “Neutral Server” data-collection/monetisation technology into Mercedes-Benz connected cars, enabling usage-based-insurance, on-demand fuelling, and EV-charging services.¹¹¹² Direction: Mercedes-Benz as customer/partner consuming an Israeli data-platform vendor; no provision of data to any Israeli state body arises in the source record.

On data residency at the hyperscaler level: Microsoft Azure (Israel Central), Google Cloud (me-west1, Tel Aviv) and AWS (Israel/Tel Aviv) each operate Israeli regions, but no public evidence was identified that Mercedes-Benz has configured data residency or workload routing to those regions; per-customer routing of Mercedes me data is not publicly disclosed.¹³

Data Sovereignty & Resilience Services

No public evidence identified. Mercedes-Benz does not market or contract data-sovereignty or resilience services to Israeli state institutions.

Defence, Intelligence & Security Sector Technology Relationships

Military & Intelligence Contracts

No public evidence was identified of a digital-technology contract, partnership, or service agreement between Mercedes-Benz Group AG and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the IDF, or Israeli intelligence agencies.

Vehicle-supply note (outside Digital scope, recorded for boundary clarity): Who Profits and AFSC Investigate both list Mercedes-Benz, but on the basis of vehicle supply - heavy-duty Arocs/Arcos tank-transporter tractor heads, Sprinter 4×4 ambulances, and police vehicles supplied to the Israeli military and Israel Police, including 112 Arcos tractor heads and 30 Sprinter ambulances reported in November 2023, delivered via the Israeli importer Colmobil.¹³¹⁴ This is hardware vehicle supply, not digital technology, and falls outside the Digital domain boundary. Neither NGO profile documents a digital/surveillance technology basis for inclusion.¹³¹⁴

Dual-Use Technology Provision

No public evidence was identified of Mercedes-Benz commercial digital technology being reported or confirmed as deployed for military, intelligence, or law-enforcement surveillance applications in Israel or the occupied territories.

Offensive Cyber & Weapons Technology

No public evidence identified. Mercedes-Benz does not develop, sell, or license offensive cyber capabilities or exploit tooling.

Constructive Notice - Post-ICJ Advisory Opinion (19 July 2024) and ICC Arrest Warrants (21 November 2024)

The ICJ issued its Advisory Opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on 19 July 2024, and the ICC issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant on 21 November 2024. The Mercedes-Benz Tel Aviv R&D site, the NVIDIA DRIVE partnership (with its upstream Mellanox/Israel dependency), and the expanded Google Cloud Automotive AI Agent collaboration (announced 13 January 2025) all continue after these dates.⁴⁵⁶⁸ No public evidence was identified of any Mercedes-Benz corporate statement, review, suspension, or modification of an Israeli digital-technology relationship in response to either the ICJ Advisory Opinion or the ICC warrants. The continuing relationships are not direct contracts with Israeli state entities.

AI, Algorithmic & Autonomous Systems

AI & ML Provision to Israeli State Bodies

No public evidence was identified of Mercedes-Benz providing AI, machine-learning, computer-vision, or autonomous decision-support systems to Israeli state, military, or security bodies.

Training Data & Model Development

No public evidence was identified of Mercedes-Benz AI models being trained on surveillance-derived, intercepted, or occupied-territory population datasets. The consumer-facing AI features documented are the Azure OpenAI / ChatGPT MBUX Voice Assistant (US-origin cloud)¹² and the Google Cloud Automotive AI Agent (Gemini on Vertex AI).⁴ One Mercedes-Benz consumer app (EQ Ready) used Anagog’s Israeli-origin on-device mobility-pattern AI - addressed under the R&D/investment section.¹⁵

Autonomous Systems & Lethality

No public evidence identified. Mercedes-Benz’s automated-driving programme with NVIDIA and Bosch is oriented to passenger/commercial vehicle automation; no connection to Israeli military autonomous-targeting or lethal-autonomous-weapons programmes was identified.⁵

MB.OS, NVIDIA DRIVE & the Google Cloud Automotive AI Agent

MB.OS, Mercedes-Benz’s chip-to-cloud operating system, uses NVIDIA DRIVE for compute and integrates the Google Cloud Automotive AI Agent (Gemini) for conversational navigation, first in the 2025 CLA.³⁴⁵ The NVIDIA compute stack carries the upstream Mellanox (Israel R&D) interconnect dependency.⁶ No public evidence exists that any of this is connected to a state-surveillance or military AI application.

Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint

Israeli R&D Facilities (Direction: Mercedes-Benz operating in Israel)

Contrary to a no-presence assumption, Mercedes-Benz operates a dedicated R&D center in Israel. Daimler announced the center in November 2016 and held the grand opening of the Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Center Tel Aviv on 16 November 2017.⁸⁹¹⁶ It is listed as a Mercedes-Benz Group location (“Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Tel Aviv Ltd.”) and is described in trade reporting as focusing on digital and mobility services, with explicitly named focus areas including biometric authentication, navigation, connected-vehicle software, and car/IT cyber security.⁸⁹¹⁶ It opened with ~15 staff, planned to grow to ~25, and is led by Israeli executive Adi Ofek; opening commentary was attributed to then-Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche and board member Ola Källenius.⁹¹⁶ The center engages the Israeli startup ecosystem via the “The Bridge” accelerator (reported screening of ~150 candidates, ~67 interviews, ~11 selected startups).⁹¹⁶ Public listings indicate the site remains operational.⁸

This is an inbound relationship - Mercedes-Benz conducting R&D and security/biometrics development within Israel - not provision of technology to the Israeli state. No public evidence links the Tel Aviv center’s output to Israeli military or security bodies.

Acquisitions & Strategic Investments in Israeli Technology (Direction: Mercedes-Benz as investor)

Public sources document direct Daimler/Mercedes-Benz investments in Israeli technology firms, contrary to a no-investment assumption:

• Anagog (Tel Aviv; on-device mobility/location-pattern prediction AI): Daimler led Anagog’s ~$10m Series B in February 2018 (with MizMaa Ventures), investing through its Tel Aviv R&D center; Daimler and Anagog co-developed the EQ Ready consumer app.¹⁵ Direction: equity investment in an Israeli AI firm.
• StoreDot (Tel Aviv; fast-charging EV battery technology): Daimler’s truck division led a ~$60m round and partnered with StoreDot in September 2017.¹⁷ Direction: strategic investment in an Israeli technology firm.
• Via (Israeli-founded ride-pooling): Mercedes-Benz Vans entered a ~$50m joint venture with Via to bring on-demand shuttle services to Europe.⁹¹⁸ Direction: joint venture with an Israeli-founded mobility firm.

HERE Technologies: Daimler (now Mercedes-Benz Group) was a member of the consortium (with BMW and Audi) that bought HERE from Nokia in 2015. HERE is Netherlands-incorporated and Finnish-origin; it is not an Israeli-origin company and is noted only for completeness.

Controlling Principals - Board & Major Shareholders

No public evidence was identified that any Mercedes-Benz Board of Management member (chaired by CEO Ola Källenius), Supervisory Board member, or major shareholder - including Geely/Li Shufu (~9.7% disclosed in 2018) and the Kuwait Investment Authority - holds a disclosed personal equity stake, board role, or investment in an Israeli surveillance, cyber, AI, or military-technology firm. Free-float index holders (BlackRock, Vanguard, Norges Bank, etc.) hold Israeli technology companies only as passive diversified constituents; these are not controlling-principal acts attributable to Mercedes-Benz. Corporate governance disclosures cover only disclosed interests; sub-threshold and family-office holdings are not publicly auditable.

Group Structure, Subsidiary Attribution & Israeli Distribution

Mercedes-Benz Group AG is the ultimate parent (FWB: MBG); principal subsidiaries include Mercedes-Benz AG (manufacturing) and Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG (financial services). The authorised importer/distributor in Israel is Colmobil Corporation, an independent Israeli company (separately profiled by Who Profits) rather than a Mercedes-Benz-owned subsidiary; Colmobil’s own IT/dealer-management stack is procured at the franchisee level and is not disclosed at Group level.¹³¹⁴ No parent entity creating an upstream Israeli-technology exposure was identified.

Settlement Nexus - Connected Vehicle Services

No dedicated settlement-specific digital platform, software product, or SaaS service provided directly by Mercedes-Benz Group AG to Israeli settlement entities was identified. Standard Mercedes me connected-vehicle services (navigation, OTA updates, eCall) are delivered to Israeli-market vehicles via the Colmobil distribution channel; the extent to which such services reach vehicles registered to West Bank settlement residents cannot be quantified from public sources.¹³

Data Breach & Security Incidents (Direction: incidents done TO Mercedes-Benz)

• GitHub token / source-code exposure (2023–2024): A mishandled GitHub authentication token (exposed 29 September 2023, discovered 11 January 2024 by RedHunt Labs, revoked 24 January 2024) granted access to an internal Mercedes-Benz GitHub Enterprise server and source code, API/cloud keys, and credentials.¹⁹²⁰ No Israeli-origin vendor nexus identified.
• A separate connected-services data breach affecting ~1.6 million customer records was attributed to a third-party vendor; no Israeli-origin nexus identified.¹⁰

These are incidents against Mercedes-Benz, not technology provision.

Patent & Intellectual Property

No public evidence was identified of significant patent portfolios, licensing agreements, or co-development arrangements between Mercedes-Benz and Israeli research institutions (Technion, Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute) beyond the startup engagements documented above.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Regulatory History

NGO Research & Reports

• Who Profits (Israeli NGO): Lists Mercedes-Benz under “Population Control / Specialized Equipment and Services,” on the basis of vehicle supply to the Israeli military and Israel Police (Arcos tractor heads, Sprinter ambulances, police vehicles) via Colmobil. The profile documents no digital/surveillance technology basis for inclusion.¹³
• AFSC Investigate: Lists Mercedes-Benz Group AG under “Weapons and Military Equipment / Gaza,” on the basis of Arocs tank-transporter supply. No digital/technology/surveillance provision is documented.¹⁴
• UN A/HRC/59/23 - Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” (presented 3 July 2025): The report’s technology section names tech firms with Israeli R&D hubs/data centres and military-industry suppliers (e.g. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Palantir, Elbit, IAI, FANUC, Maersk). Mercedes-Benz Group AG is not named in the report’s digital-technology-provider analysis.²¹²²
• Mozilla Foundation (Privacy Not Included): Rated Mercedes-Benz “Super creepy,” flagging extensive data collection (geolocation, voice recordings, sensory data, behavioural inferences) and policy language permitting sharing with law enforcement and government agencies. This is a consumer-privacy critique, not an Israel-nexus finding.¹⁰

Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Campaigns

Mercedes-Benz appears on several BDS-aligned consumer boycott lists; available campaign material frames the listing around vehicle supply to the Israeli military and general Israeli-market presence rather than a technology-provision case.²³ No active, named digital-technology-specific divestment campaign targeting Mercedes-Benz was identified.

Regulatory & Legal Actions

No public evidence was identified of regulatory inquiries, export-control actions, or OECD National Contact Point complaints specifically addressing Mercedes-Benz’s technology sales or services to Israeli state entities.

GDPR & Data Protection

Mercedes-Benz’s connected-car data handling has drawn digital-rights scrutiny (Mozilla).¹⁰ No GDPR enforcement action specifically implicating Israeli data flows or Israeli-entity transfers was identified.

Mercedes-Benz Supplier Code of Conduct

Mercedes-Benz publishes a Supplier Code of Conduct addressing human-rights, environmental, and ethical standards.²⁴ No public evidence was identified of supplier-code enforcement specifically addressing Israeli-origin technology procurement or territorial deployment restrictions.

End Notes