Mercedes-Benz has unveiled new interior shots of the upcoming EQS. There’s definitely a lot going on here, including a modern, refined interior with a lot more displays and a lot less physical buttons.
The headline to the show is the the massive piece of glass in the dash. This curves in three-dimensions and overlays 3 displays. The UI is known as the Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) and this new triplescreen interface is known as the Hyperscreen.
The optional extra consists of 3 separate displays that span over 141 centimetres wide. The driver display is 12.3″, the largest central display is 17.7″ and the front passenger display is 12.3″. While Merc would love for you to think of this as one seemless display, the reality is, it isn’t.
Back in 2015, I watched Sharp show a prototype curved display designed for use in vehicles, but that is yet to become a reality. Clearly making curved displays is more difficult, more expensive and so, as cool as they are, rectangles ultimately win.
The EQS offers a zero-level approach to the user interface, a reference to the fact things are accessible, without having to dive into menus. This should go some way to reassuring the dinosaurs who hate the thought of losing knobs and dials.
The back row passengers don’t get ignored either with a display of their own, connected to the back of the front seat. I’ve often wondered why more premium and luxury vehicles don’t recognise how modern passengers consume content while in transit. Of course, we all have phones now, but a larger display is always welcome.
The rest of the interior looks really lush, particularly those seats, they really do look like soft marshmallows you could easily fall asleep in.
When it comes to technology in the EQS, Mercedes say they have face-recognition with cameras in the driver display which is also used for a wide range of assistance and comfort functions. These include biometric authentication which we can guess will enable automatic and accurate driver profile selection, regardless of what your phones are doing.
There’s also a safety feature called ATTENTION ASSIST which is basically a fatigue warning. We’ll have to wait to learn more about any autonomous options.
The ‘Hey Mercedes’ voice assistant in the EQS can also be operated from the rear. offering rear passengers the same comprehensive infotainment and comfort offerings as the driver and front passenger.
The car has some nice RGB accent lighting, provided by LED light strips around the vehicle. We see multiple colours in the images released by mercedes, so expect to be able to cusotmise these based on your preferences.
It is important to note that the MBUX Hyperscreen is an option. If you pay up for this car, then it’s hard to imagine you can’t stretch the budget for the flagship feature, but if you don’t here’s what your interior will look like.
While this version certainly looses its futuristic-look, it does maintain the transition to digital interfaces to most of the car’s operations. We’re continuing to see this more interiors move to a minimalistic design style and personally I love it and it’s hard to ignore the impact Model 3’s stark interior has had on the industry.
