Intelligent Cockpit Intelligence Bureau | Great Efforts, Amazing Achievements -- Mercedes-Benz S-Class Sedan.

Hello everyone, this is the fifth season of GeekCar Intelligent Cockpit Intelligence Bureau.

Let’s review the previous main characters of the Intelligent Cockpit Intelligence Bureau column in 2021:

  • The first episode, XPeng P7.

  • The second episode, Ideal ONE 2021.

  • The third episode, GAC AION Y.

  • The fourth episode, NIO EC6.

Yes, they all have one thing in common: They are commonly known as “smart electric cars” in the public perception.

In the year when new energy is developing rapidly and car intelligence is exploding, the general public and even some practitioners will take it for granted that intelligence belongs to new energy.

But is this really the case?

In this issue of the Intelligent Cockpit Intelligence Bureau column, we will still focus on presenting various experiences, details, and analysis inside the intelligent cockpit. At the end of the evaluation, we will also chat with you about the insights and inspiration that the cockpit brings us.

We have always believed that chatting ten thousand times under the sky is better than reading ten thousand books. Welcome everyone to come and chat with us.

Here is a POV video of the intelligent cockpit experience presented in the first person point of view. If conditions permit, this segment will be included in the future episodes of the Intelligent Cockpit Intelligence Bureau column.

As this is the first recording, there are still many shortcomings. We welcome your valuable feedback and suggestions. Based on specific feedback, we will continue to improve and make the Intelligent Cockpit POV segment better and better.

Markdown:

## 大家好,这里是 GeekCar 智能座舱情报局第三季的第五期。

我们先回顾一下 2021 年智能座舱情报局栏目前几期的主角:

- 第一期,[小鹏 P7](https://www.42how.com/post/4323);

- 第二期,[理想 ONE 2021 版](https://www.42how.com/post/4732);

- 第三期,[广汽埃安 AION Y](https://www.42how.com/post/5015);

- 第四期,[蔚来 EC6](https://www.42how.com/post/5274)。

没错,它们都有一个共同点:大众认知为「智能电动车」。

在这个新能源飞速发展遇上汽车智能化爆发的年景,社会大众、甚至部分从业者都会先入为主地认为:毫无疑问,**智能化是属于新能源的**。

但事实真的如此吗?

在本期的智能座舱情报局栏目中,我们依然会对智能座舱里的种种体验、细节和分析进行集中呈现。评测的最后,我们也会跟大家一起聊聊,座舱带给我们的洞察和启示。

我们一直相信,读万卷书,不如聊一万回天儿,这里欢迎大家来和我们聊聊。

![](https://upload.42how.com/article/image_20211113002336.png)

这是以第一人称视角带来的智能座舱体验视频。如果条件允许,以后的智能座舱情报局栏目中都会插入这一环节。

由于是第一次录制,不足之处尚多。欢迎大家多提宝贵意见和建议,根据具体反馈我们会不断改善,以后的智能座舱 POV 会越来越好。

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The protagonist of the 5th issue of the Intelligent Cockpit Intelligence Bureau is a flagship fuel-powered vehicle from a traditional luxury car manufacturer — the Mercedes-Benz S 500 L (chassis code V223, hereinafter referred to as the Mercedes S-Class).

When it comes to the Mercedes S-Class, many people will think of its position as the “standard-bearer” of the D-Class executive vehicles among the BBA three car manufacturers. Of course, except for the big brother Maybach above it.

Whether it is a traditional car manufacturer, a new force or a new power, the industry is interpreting their understanding of consumer driving scenarios, and using more digital means to empower intelligent cockpits.

We know that the word “empowerment” has been overused to a large extent, but we still have to use it today, and it will appear frequently, because it is a more suitable vocabulary.

I believe everyone can more or less feel that today’s new forces and new power are more like taking a “simple and concise” route: digitizing to empower interaction.

Traditional car companies have chosen another path: “simple, but more luxurious”, and digitization not only needs to empower interaction, but also needs to empower luxury.

This difference is precisely the inherent characteristic of each of them.

So, will this Mercedes S 500 L bring us a different surprise?

* This review is based on the Mercedes-Benz MBUX software version RL_NTG7_E023.303_21042AC3.

Interactive Hardware

The Mercedes S-Class with chassis code W223/V223 is the first model in the Mercedes family to adopt a larger vertical screen design, which replaces the previous dual-screen design with a 12.3-inch full LCD instrument panel that supports naked-eye 3D function, and a 12.8-inch OLED touch central control screen.

In addition, the car is equipped with two rear entertainment screens, a rear car control tablet, and a large AR-HUD.

Among the 5 screens in the cockpit, the touch central control screen has the best display effect. This screen has a resolution of 1888×1728. It uses OLED material provided by LG and has vibration feedback.LCD instrument panel and rear entertainment have a clear display effect. However, compared with other screens, the color depth and resolution of the car control tablet are much worse.

The interaction methods inside the car mainly include physical buttons, touch screens, voice input, and sliding touch buttons.

There is a bangs screen design above the LCD instrument panel, which contains two DMS (Driver Monitoring System) infrared cameras. These cameras mainly capture the driver's eyes to assist in the naked-eye 3D effect of the LCD instrument panel and the display of AR-HUD.

After just experiencing “Double 11,” I always feel familiar with the appearance of this screen…

We especially emphasize that the naked-eye 3D effect of the LCD instrument panel relies on the "slit-type LCD grating technology" and mainly goes through three steps:

  • Two DMS cameras capture information about the driver’s eyes, such as location, eye distance, line of sight, etc.;

  • The LCD instrument panel adjusts the screen in real-time based on the information captured by the DMS cameras;

  • The LCD instrument panel has a slit-shaped grating that separates the visible screen of the left and right eyes through the “parallax barrier.”

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan has two types of steering wheel styles. This model equipped with the "AMG Line" package is equipped with a "dragonfly-type" steering wheel.

(Unselected AMG Line)

(Selected AMG Line)

The steering wheel is divided into four areas, each consisting of physical buttons and sliding touch buttons.## English Markdown Text

Upper Left Area: Controls the LCD instrument display information, including physical buttons “Return, Home, Confirm” and sliding touch buttons for selecting and toggling information.

Lower Left Area: Controls and adjusts the ADAS functions, including physical buttons “Start / Resume, Cancel, Distance Adjustment, Speed Limit Function” and sliding touch buttons for adjusting the set speed. Up and down slide for precise adjustment (±1 km/h), press the top and bottom ends for “tens” adjustment (±10 km/h).

Upper Right Area: Controls the display information of the central control screen, including physical buttons “Return, Home, Confirm” and sliding touch buttons for selecting information.

Lower Right Area: Controls sound-related functions, including physical buttons “Voice Assistant, Multi-function button, Answer, Hang up” and sliding touch buttons for adjusting the volume. Slide up and down for adjustment, press any position to control mute and turn on.

For the layout of the four areas, both left and right thumbs can easily touch the buttons, and the pressure and sliding sensations are comfortable and precise.

Furthermore, there are bumps and concavities designed in all four areas, and the left and right parts adopt a symmetrical design. After becoming familiar with the vehicle and remembering the button functions and locations, a small part of the function can be operated blindly in the driving scenario, such as enabling / disabling / resuming ADAS function, adjusting the volume and turning off, waking up the voice assistant, and answering / hanging up incoming calls.

The function of the rear control tablet is the same as that of the rear entertainment screen, which is equivalent to a mapping of the MBUX system on the central control screen. The tablet, rear entertainment, and central control screen are connected and mapped through in-car Wi-Fi.

Visual Elements

The MBUX system equipped in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class features a deep blue as the main color with the primary display color being the blue color family, with bright blue used to indicate function activation. In most interfaces, the color styles of each level are relatively consistent.

However, in the “Soft Mode” of the LCD instrument, the background color of the LCD instrument will follow the set ambient lighting color.

In “Sport mode,” the LCD instrument panel is primarily black and red.

In “Exclusive mode,” the LCD instrument panel is primarily white.

Smoothness

The Mercedes S-Class has customized infotainment chips from NVIDIA that feature three GPUs, as well as 16GB of memory and 320GB of SSD storage.

Throughout the entire evaluation process, we noticed that the overall smoothness of the car’s infotainment system was very high, including page scrolling, deep-level entering and exiting, and native application opening and closing.

However, the fast applications downloaded from the application market are not very responsive and have poor operating smoothness with severe lag. This needs further optimization. We will analyze the reasons for this later.

Scene chat

The cabin configuration of this Mercedes S-Class includes a car fragrance system, active shape-mimic seats (optional, RMB 28,300), 64-color ambient lighting, 31-speaker Burmester sound system (optional, RMB 76,700), second-row independent seats (optional, RMB 44,000), rear small table board (optional, RMB 25,500), and beige microfiber roof with Nappa leather (optional, RMB 42,600).

The active shape-mimic seats in the front row are a very interesting design. In addition to being able to adjust the airbag individually, they can also be adjusted and massaged based on the different body shapes of the occupants.

In dynamic driving scenarios, based on factors such as steering force, speed, and G forces, the active shape-mimic seats can provide opposite lateral support in corners, turns, and U-turns.

In simple terms, in scenes like the winding curves of a high curvature, the bodies of the two front passengers hardly tilt to the side. To put it more vividly, when driving out of an underground parking lot and maneuvering through some winding curves, passengers can feel the gentle and seamless lateral support.

This reminds me of the taxi driver in Chongqing, who was driving along the riverside mountain road, accelerating and cornering, with a serious expression on his face and speaking boldly. I also remember myself grasping the handrail on the roof of the car, turning pale.

Getting back to the topic at hand, as a large luxury executive sedan, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class naturally puts great consideration into the comfort of the boss seat. In the rear, the independent rear seats can be adjusted with massage, ventilation, and heating functions.

At the same time, the intelligent center console also has a mobile phone wireless charging pad, two heated/cooled cupholders, two headphones with noise reduction, four Type-C interfaces, a cigarette lighter interface, and two HDMI interfaces.

Speaking of the scene, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class also supports pairing with wearables through Bluetooth or the NFC touchpad on the center console to monitor the passenger’s heart rate.

At the same time, it also offers the IoT solution of “car-home interconnectivity”, ecosystems for JD.com’s “Xiao Jingyu” and Midea.

MBUX Intelligent Inductive Assistant

This section is separated for a reason. When the current generation of Mercedes-Benz S-Class was released, the most attractive feature was the MBUX Intelligent Inductive Assistant. What kind of function is it?

The MBUX Intelligent Inductive Assistant can capture the driver’s hand gestures to assist with interaction. For example:

  • The driver can turn on and off the front reading lights by placing their hands below the rearview mirror;

  • The driver can control the opening and closing of the sunshade by waving their hand forward or backward in front of the rearview mirror.- When the driver reaches over to the front passenger seat, the reading light will turn on, making it easier for the driver to retrieve items from the front passenger seat or the glove box.

Speaking of gesture control in the cabin, some people in the industry used to criticize it as “redundant” and “inefficient”. We won’t comment on its existence —— when the iPhone was first introduced, there were also many people who thought that “tapping on the glass was stupid”.

One of the great advantages of the MBUX intelligent sensing assistant is that it makes it easier for drivers to operate inside the cabin. Unfortunately, this feature is not equipped on our Mercedes S-Class.

After communicating with the relevant person in charge, we learned that the reason for not equipping it is that the beige interior is close to human skin tone, which, in the current technological environment, can interfere with the cabin’s sensing, so vehicles with beige interior cannot be equipped with this functionality.

So, the question is, do you prefer the convenience brought by the MBUX intelligent sensing assistant or the beige interior?

Map Functionality

The map data of the Mercedes S-Class comes from NavInfo, and the overall interface and functionality design have a very obvious “traditional car enterprise style”.

The map navigation system of the Mercedes S-Class supports Location Based Services. In the search bar, you can search for nearby parking lots, restaurants, service areas, and gas stations through quick buttons.

At the same time, Mercedes S-Class’s navigation also supports a series of functions:

According to the license plate setting, the system can avoid traffic restricted areas, and other features include Mercedes me Companion (via WeChat mini program), sending the destination to the car (via WeChat mini program), displaying traffic conditions, AR-enhanced display video, displaying points of interest, providing dynamic path guidance, displaying commuting paths, avoiding highways and etc. In addition, there are two modes for the route guidance: brief and detailed.

Mercedes me Companion allows users to form a team with friends via WeChat mini program, but all members must drive a Mercedes car model that supports Mercedes me Companion.

The map navigation is bound to the Mercedes me account. Users can log in the account in different Mercedes car brands to synchronize various information, records, and system settings including map navigation.

During the actual road test, 3D navigation will start automatically at an appropriate time.

AR-enhanced display video will provide guidance in advance for all “non-straight” road sections, such as entering or exiting a main road, entering or exiting a roundabout, entering or exiting ramps, multiple intersections, consecutive exits, turns, and so on.

It is worth mentioning that in multi-entry lane sections such as roundabouts, the AR-enhanced display video will display the correct route with blue information and the wrong route with gray information.

When driving through a location that has an impact on the positioning system, such as a tunnel, although the refresh rate of the vehicle’s position may decrease to some extent, there is no apparent lag or “teleportation” effect. The performance of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class in terms of inertial navigation is still satisfactory.The Mercedes-Benz S-Class also offers a feature called Traffic Light View, which displays the front camera’s panoramic view on the infotainment screen when the vehicle stops at a traffic intersection, helping the driver observe traffic signals blocked by the car in front or the A-pillars on both sides.

This feature would be very practical in countries in Europe, where small roads are common. However, in China, especially in Beijing with wider roads and larger intersections, the traffic lights in the image appear to be too small to be seen clearly by the driver’s naked eye.

Nevertheless, we respect the attention to detail in design and want to give a thumbs up to the fine points of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

AR-HUD

In recent years, AR-HUD has gradually become popular. However, if we count carefully, there are not many models equipped with AR-HUD today, and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is one of them.

The HUD of Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the largest HUD I have experienced so far. Its imaging size is at least one circle larger than the common HUD, and the brightness is high enough to remain clear even in well-lit environments on sunny days.

In addition to displaying conventional HUD information such as speed, speed limit, ADAS status, and RPM/gear (driving mode), AR-HUD can also use navigation to provide 3D route guidance and mark leading vehicles together with ADAS, showing the route and status of direction indicators for lane changing.

In fact, the road effect has been displayed in the intelligent cockpit POV video.

Content Ecosystem

Judging from the product planning from the application aspect, the Mercedes-Benz MBUX system has been localized to a considerable extent in China.

In terms of music applications, QQ Music is installed and integrated with the system audio source. QQ Music can be used directly in the system’s media player or played through the voice assistant. It also includes functions such as classification, rankings, and playlists.

Regarding audio content, Himalaya FM is integrated into the system.

Other applications use quick apps, which are provided by the Huawei HMS for Car quick app service, including -Game entertainment: Happy Landlord, Sichuan Mahjong, 2048;

Life services: LY.com, SF Express, Traffic Violation Inquiry, Most Beautiful Weather Car Edition, Airline Steward, Real-time Air Quality, Chinese Dictionary, Calendar;

Content and news: Tencent News, Sina News, The Paper, Phoenix News, Douban Rating;

Financial news: Sina Finance, THS Lite, Eastmoney Car Edition;

Audio content: Yingting, Pocket Story, Liting Headline, Lizhi FM, Phoenix FM, Babybus;

Learning: Xichuangzhu, a traditional Chinese culture learning app for ancient poetry, literature, calligraphy, and painting;

Long videos: Tencent Video, Bilibili;

Regarding short videos, there is only one Haotu Video which was requested to be removed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in July this year…

Have you been dazzled by so many apps?

Indeed, in terms of the categories covered by Huawei HMS for Car, its Quick App services are comprehensive, and it also has a car-specific version for the driving scenario.

Multi-scene voice interaction performance

The performance of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class voice assistant can reach the middle to upper level among traditional luxury car companies’ products. It has good practical performance in automatic error correction, context understanding, partially-free wake-up, multi-round interaction, Chinese and English recognition, and dialect recognition, etc.

Meanwhile, the ambient lighting inside the car can also interact with the four-zone voice recognition.

However, there are also problems, such as the fact that the voice assistant can control software and hardware functions such as media, windows, and sunshades, but cannot control the on/off and adjustment of the air conditioning, and even has bugs.

As for the interaction of the ambient lighting in the car and what this bug is, it was mentioned in an intelligent cockpit POV video.

Based on our evaluation system, we tested the voice assistant’s wake-up rate and recognition accuracy in both static and dynamic scenarios by controlling the degree of window opening, wind noise/road noise, air conditioning air volume, and other passenger conversation interference in these major listening environments.

The results are as follows:

  • When the vehicle is stationary, the Mercedes S-Class voice assistant’s accurate response rate for voice wake-up is still acceptable, and the wake-up success rates in the listening environments of fully open windows and maximum air conditioning airflow both reach 100%, but the response rate is only 60% when the windows are completely closed.

  • Its performance in high-speed driving scenarios is still very good. It only failed to wake up once during the closed window test with the maximum road and wind noise. In other high wind noise/road noise and maximum air conditioning airflow scenarios, the Mercedes S voice assistant’s wake-up success rate reached 100%.

  • When interacting with instructions while playing audio content in the car, the Mercedes S-Class’s response accuracy rate is only 50%.

  • In a noisy environment where other passengers are chatting in the car, the response rate of the Mercedes S-Class to instruction-based voice interaction is 60%, which is barely passing.

From the perspective of cockpit interaction mode and layout, content ecology deployment, voice assistant functionality and experience, and functional scenarios for rear seat configurations, the Mercedes S-Class has a very good experience.

At the same time, in terms of application ecology, there is some disorder in the Huawei Quick App planning of the Mercedes S-Class, with some application categories being all mainstream applications and some categories having no mainstream applications.

Meanwhile, there is still room for improvement in the wake-up rate and recognition rate of the voice assistant.

The addition of naked-eye 3D instruments and AR-HUD also puts the Mercedes S-Class ahead of many other models in terms of intuitive intelligent hardware configuration – we constantly remind ourselves that the price and positioning are right here.

Finally, let’s talk about a detail.

The seat belts of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class are equipped with a glowing ring, which makes it easy for users to locate the seat belt buckle in dimly lit environments. This is very convenient for passengers who need to fasten their seat belts at night.

GIF of the glowing seat belt buckle

After conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the intelligent cockpit, we believe that the Mercedes-Benz S-Class performs excellently in terms of the richness of the applications used, but still needs to improve its usability.

Overall, among the mass-produced vehicles of traditional automobile companies, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class performs remarkably well in terms of intelligent experience.

Image of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class cockpit

Here, we will discuss some of the debatable points we encountered during the evaluation process.

Our intention here is not to criticize products or reject the team’s work arbitrarily. We hope that these words can inspire independent thinking.

Dashboard Reflection

During our experience, we found that the LCD glass of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class dashboard was quite reflective during daytime driving.

Image of the reflection on the dashboard

Especially on this model with a beige interior, the driver can clearly see the steering wheel, turn signal lever, gear lever, and even their own reflection on the LCD glass.

Image of the reflection of the driver on the dashboard

As recorded in “The Old Book of Tang, Biography of Wei Zheng,” Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, said in memory of the famous minister Wei Zheng: “Use copper as a mirror; you can dress up properly. Use history as a mirror; you can understand the rise and fall. Use people as a mirror; you can understand the gain and loss.”

So the question is, what does Mercedes want us to see when they use the dashboard as a mirror?

Improvements Needed for Fast Application Experience

Currently, there are two problems with the Huawei Quick App on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class:

First, life service applications, especially travel-related ones, can only be queried, and although the booking function can be opened, it always displays that the booking cannot be made.

Image of the travel app on the Quick App

Second, as mentioned earlier, there is stuttering.

After careful analysis, we have speculated that the reason why the native applications in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class system do not stutter while the Quick App does is:

The first possibility:Because the underlying system of the MBUX is based on QNX, which is a microkernel real-time operating system, the QNX core is very small, so its running speed is fast. It is also the world’s first car operating system to pass the ASIL-D system functional safety certification, so many traditional car companies will choose QNX for stability experience.

The Huawei HMS for Car Quick App Service is based on Android, which means that Mercedes-Benz has connected the MBUX system to the Android development platform, and Quick App needs to call Android through QNX.

The second possibility:

Quick App is a type of non-installed application that uses comparatively simple JS and CSS development languages, and its code is obviously less than most native applications (about 20% of the code amount of native applications).

Therefore, some functional parts of the application need to be loaded through the network, so there are certain requirements for the network environment.

The above is my personal speculation. If there are any discrepancies with reality, please point them out.

For the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which has abandoned the dual-screen and touchpad and introduced a vertical large screen for the first time, this move is definitely innovative and is the first brick laid by Mercedes-Benz for the future of in-car interaction.

First, let me talk about some satisfying and even reassuring points:

  • Localization processing:

    I remember when the Beijing Mercedes-Benz A200L was released in 2018, Mercedes-Benz mentioned that the MBUX system installed in China was jointly developed by the overseas development team and the Chinese development team, so it has strong Chinese recognition ability, dialect recognition ability, and more localization processing.

    As a globalized model, even if the system cannot be extensively modified, at least it can better adapt to the usage habits of Chinese people from some functional applications and cabin experience.

  • Map navigation:

    In the map navigation of this generation of MBUX system, even if it is not equipped with common car versions of Gaode or Baidu maps, Mercedes-Benz has created an easy-to-use, feature-rich, and accurate information map navigation system.

  • Details:

    It has to be said that Mercedes-Benz S-Class has many detailed designs, which have been carefully considered, accumulated from the experience of traditional car companies in car usage scenarios. Examples include active-sculpted seats, safety belt buckles with illuminated rings, 4D sound effects, MBUX intelligent sensing assistant, and so on.

Now, let’s talk about the product itself.- After experiencing the Mercedes-Benz S-Class this time, my favorite features and configurations are the active contour seats, naked-eye 3D instrument panel, ambient light and interactive light, and the huge AR-HUD.

  • They provide users with an immersive experience and make me feel that the machine I am driving alone at night is no longer cold.
  • The most frustrating things for me are the reflection on the instrument panel, the lag of quick applications, and the low-quality screen display of the back seat control tablet.
  • Today’s Mercedes-Benz S-Class can only be called “a user-friendly intelligent cockpit” in traditional car companies, and there is still some gap between it and excellence. In the era of digitalization and intelligentization, this is Mercedes-Benz’s first step forward.
  • For a century-old traditional car company and a global brand like Mercedes-Benz, going from 0 to 1 is difficult, and it can even be said to affect the whole body with a slight move. But after taking this step, Mercedes-Benz has infinite possibilities.
  • If the new forces are 100% digitally empowered by intelligence, then the Mercedes-Benz S-Class is more like 50% digitally empowered by intelligence and 50% digitally empowered by luxury, more like an intelligent and luxurious dual-development route.
  • Now, I am looking forward to the Mercedes EQS with MBUX HyperScreen, hoping that it can perform better, after all, it is a flagship intelligent electric vehicle of Mercedes-Benz.
  • GeekCar has already given a high-quality expression of his views, and from a different perspective, I would like to share my own opinions with you.
  • During the evaluation work, when someone asked me about the cabin experience of this “Maybach”, I would say:
  • “Both inside and outside have the smell of RMB.”
  • This is a joke, but it is also the most real feeling.
  • I have no obsession with luxury cars, but I am easily impressed by experience and details.
  • For example, when passing through the circular island during the evening rush hour, the continuous gray arrow on the AR-HUD under the guidance of the navigation blocked the wrong route, and the huge blue arrow with guiding information and direction floated in front of me. As the car slowly moved forward and passed through my sight to my brain, the shock was indescribable;
  • For example, the Burmester high-end 4D surround sound system composed of 31 speakers in the cockpit, when playing music, brings not a sense of projection from all directions, but a distinctly layered sense of envelopment. Coupled with the 4D sound effect transmitted by the seat, the adjustable VIP sound effects in each area, the listening experience far exceeds any movie theater I have been to, and even subjectively exceeds the home audio equipment brand of a certain high-end brand I have experienced.

When a vehicle enters a complex environment, such as a large commercial area with high-rise buildings or an underground tunnel, the navigation system of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class will timely switch to a 3D view that corresponds to the current environment, helping the driver to better understand the vehicle’s position from both macro and real-time dimensions to make safe driving decisions according to their wishes.

There are many impressive features in the cockpit experience of this car, but it is not appropriate to keep talking about them self-centeredly here.

The intelligent experience of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and even the UI/UX design style of the system are not in the same direction as those of the new forces in auto-making. However, looking at it from another perspective, the numerous service interfaces provided in the car’s system cover almost all the scenarios where we need external assistance.

In this car, even people who don’t drive or ride don’t have to worry much about the “driving” and “riding” experience.

This also makes us rethink the inspiration brought by the intelligent cockpit of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and allow me to share the question as the conclusion of this review, through leaving blank space:

Is it necessary to use intelligence to create a luxurious experience?

When building the cockpit experience, is it the only feasible way to invest heavily to “create wonders?”

Compared with the clear understanding after the previous reviews of intelligent cockpits, what can we learn from the Mercedes-Benz S-Class as industry practitioners?

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.