Artificial intelligence and advanced entertainment and information features will adorn the next version of Mercedes’s E-class when the midsize luxury sedan debuts later this year.
Mercedes recently provided a glimpse, showing an elaborately equipped interior while hiding the car’s exterior styling under a shroud.
Some of the features are shared with Mercedes new EVs, including the EQS and EQE sedans. Others likely will debut in the E-class, then work their way across the luxury brand’s whole model line.
Window-to-window screens
The dashboard will include as many as three separate screens. A high-def gauge cluster and central touch screen are standard. An optional passenger screen in front of the passenger seat can stream video and allow the passenger to suggest waypoints and new destinations during trips.
The passenger screen is intended to be visible to the front passenger, but not the driver when dynamic content like a movie is streaming. In addition, a gaze tracking camera makes sure the driver isn’t looking at the passenger screen when the car is moving. The screen displays a decorative pattern, stars on a black background, for instance, when the passenger seat is empty.
Ambient lights ring the dashboard. They can be programmed for a number of colors and effects.
Unfortunately, the interior appears to be short of buttons and dials for features like volume, fan, tuning and temperature.
Google maps, Mercedes design
Mercedes and Google are working on a connected navigation system that puts Google data on geography, traffic points of interest and more into a visual display designed by Mercedes. Google’s database will include more than 200 million businesses around the world, with hours, ratings and reviews. The system will also have access to YouTube, though presumably not visible to the driver when the car is moving.
Mercedes is also investigating uses for Google’s artificial intelligence system.
Conference calls and selfies
Built-in selfie and video cameras can work with apps ranging from Zoom and Webex to TikTok. Video display pauses when the vehicle is moving.
Among the apps that will be available from launch:
- Angry Birds
- TikTok
- Vivaldi web browser
- Webex
- Zoom
The Zync streaming platform will be available for sports, news and other programming.
Music you hear, see and feel
Top models will have a 17-speaker Burmeister system that includes transducers in the seat backrests for subsonic vibrations.
The LED light strip along the top of the instrument panel and doors can be set to respond to music or other audio sources. The changing light is synchronized to the music’s beat and vary with tempo changes. Bass, midrange and treble notes are presented as lights in different places and intensities.
System prompts for navigation, safety and traffic interrupt the music.
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“You know me so well”
Drivers can program the car to accommodate regular items on their schedules — warming or cooling the interior after a daily trip to the gym, for instance. Temperature, interior lighting and music can all be programmed.
Mercedes expects to add AI features that can learn your habits and respond automatically. Seat settings for temperature, massage, etc., will be the first controlled by AI, but Mercedes plans to add other features.
The car’s 5G modem will permit over-the-air updates for AI and other features.
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.