Mercedes plans to launch an all-new model of its signature E-Class sedan for the 2024 mannequin 12 months later this 12 months. Automakers usually tease an upcoming new automotive, releasing photographs and bits of trivia earlier than the ultimate unveiling. Mercedes isn’t any totally different, and, understanding that the E-Class’s attraction has at all times been about its opulent inside, they’ve began from the within out.
We don’t know what the 2024 E-Class will appear to be from the surface. We don’t know what’s going to energy it or the way it will deal with. However we do know you possibly can host Zoom conferences from the motive force’s seat (not when you’re driving, fortunately).
Mercedes confirmed off the 2024 E’s cabin this week, and an inventory of options that sounds extra like a brand new cellphone than a brand new automotive.
I’ll Drive, You Watch The Film
The showpiece is an optionally available dashboard made up virtually solely of screens. It’s not fairly the Hyperscreen of the S-Class. That one is a single pane of glass overlaying nearly the complete dashboard. This one, as an alternative, has a separate 12.3-inch display in entrance of the motive force, housed in its personal bezel. The remainder of the dashboard seems to be a single pane of glass. Mercedes calls this model the Superscreen.
It homes a number of separate display surfaces – a 14.4-inch central touchscreen that manages local weather and leisure capabilities, and a separate 12.3-inch leisure display for the entrance passenger. The latter is shielded so the motive force can’t see it, permitting passengers to observe motion pictures with out distracting the motive force.
Maintain Conferences Within the Automotive
Persevering with the cellphone theme, there’s a built-in selfie digital camera. “When the car is stationary, the motive force can take part in on-line video conferences through Webex or Zoom, and take photographs and movies,” Mercedes explains. The corporate plans so as to add the identical operate for the entrance passenger “at a later date.”
Zoom and Webex received’t be the one apps you possibly can obtain to your pho..er…Mercedes.
“A brand new App Retailer has been built-in into the Mercedes me Retailer, with a steadily increasing portfolio of apps,” the corporate says. The vehicles will ship with, amongst different issues, Zoom, the Vivaldi internet browser, TikTok, and Indignant Birds.
Program In Your Routines, Or Let the Automotive Study Them
Maybe our favourite operate, nevertheless, is what Mercedes calls “routines.” Homeowners can program the automotive to execute capabilities in patterns. For example, Mercedes suggests, you possibly can program your E-Class to heat the cabin to a pre-set temperature on days when the surface temperature is below 40 levels or run a “date evening” routine on Friday evenings that performs romantic music through Bluetooth and units ambient lighting to a rose-colored hue.
Talking of ambient lighting, house owners can set it to reply to music.
Sooner or later, Mercedes says, it plans to make use of in-car synthetic intelligence to study the motive force’s routines and automate them. In the event you have a tendency to change the radio to information as quickly as you drop the children off in school, as an illustration, the automotive will study to do it for you.
Speak To Your Automotive Casually
And, whereas a lot of at present’s vehicles settle for voice instructions, the 2024 E-Class will hear for them with no immediate if you happen to’re alone within the automotive. Slightly than saying “Hey, Mercedes” to get up the voice command function, you possibly can merely communicate to it. Drivers may even chain instructions collectively – “activate the seat heaters and name house,” for instance.
It’s a unprecedented set of inside applied sciences however tells us nothing concerning the driving expertise. We count on Mercedes to start teasing mechanical particulars quickly.