Since the dawn of infotainment, memes have theorized when car dashboards would be entirely screen. Obviously, the Tesla Model S’ portrait-style setup accelerated things, but the arms race really took off over the past five years or so. Who will win the race? Well, here’s the interior of the incoming electric Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and not only does it look like a McDonald’s drive-thru menu, the old Mercedes-Benz 190E probably wouldn’t even recognize this thing as a descendent.
Like in the new electric GLC, everything is computer. On top trims, a massive 39.1-inch screen runs all the way from the driver’s side air vent to the passenger-side air vent. That’s a larger screen than the TV I play video games on, although it definitely isn’t a standard aspect ratio. The good news is that the brightness of the instrument cluster, center section, and passenger section can all be adjusted separately, so your retinas probably won’t get seared if your passenger decides to watch a YouTube video. The bad news is that if the screen malfunctions, there goes everything from your HVAC controls to your gauges.
If you’ve noticed a bump atop the screen, it’s there for a slightly dystopian reason. This selfie camera is also capable of being a webcam for Zoom calls when the car is parked. Does anyone driving a C-Class need to maximize shareholder value that much? Still, so long as you say no to video conference calls, the ability to snap a quick selfie with passengers sounds like a fun way to make memories, even if your phone could do it anyway.
Mind you, not every new C-Class will get the enormous screen, because most models will be equipped with lots of smaller screens. One for the gauges, one for the infotainment, and even one for the passenger, all separated by black borders. This so-called Superscreen is undoubtedly cheaper to manufacture than the large single-piece unit, but I fear how cheap all those borders will look.
Are there any physical controls? Only a modicum. A small bank on the console houses a volume scroll wheel, a drive mode selector, a hazard warning lamp switch, and three other buttons. None of which appear to be climate-related. Instead, all your climate controls and heated seats are in the screen. Mercedes-Benz still states that with this interior setup, “Analogue and digital aesthetics merge seamlessly.” Is an analog aesthetic in the room with us?
Mind you, these photos of the screen setup give us a huge clue as to the capability of the new electric C-Class. The digital dashboard displays 684 kilometers, or 425 miles of range at 90 percent state-of-charge. That should equate to 472 miles or 760 kilometers of range on a full charge, a considerable figure for a compact electric sedan. Granted, it’s possible this may align with WLTP range ratings rather than the more realistic EPA range ratings, but nothing in this class really comes close to that sort of mileage.
While that information’s likely an easter egg, Mercedes-Benz has announced a variety of available features. You’ll be able to get the new C-Class with a vegan-certified interior that replaces cow hides with some sort of plastic, ventilated seats and a backrest massage will be an option, there’s an available illuminated moonroof with oodles of etched three-pointed stars of questionable taste, and you’ll be able to choose several types of leather and wood.
That last bit is important because while a huge screen might impress Best Buy enthusiasts, there are still a lot of people who expect a luxury car to be made of nicer stuff than a regular car. Softer leathers, slabs of real veneer, nicer headlining, real metallic components. Considering visual technology ages with time rather than use, the long-term prospects of the new C-Class are looking interesting. It might make a splash now, but how will it lease in five years’ time when competitors have crisper screens with deeper blacks and cleaner user experience design?
Regardless, we can expect to see a whole lot more of the new electric Mercedes-Benz C-Class on April 20, when the full thing’s unveiled in Korea. If the GLC’s any indication, expect an enormous grille and questionable star-shaped elements in the lights. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be looking at W204 C 63 AMGs.
Top graphic images: Mercedes-Benz; McDonalds
Can’t say I’m the target market for this piece of shit.
Still hate it though.
But can I order my McD’s via Doordash, and can I get some tacky gold trim on it?
I would take the multiple smaller screens over one big one any day of the week. Like Thomas says in the article, if your one big screen goes out, there goes your controls, your gauges, and your entertainment all at once.
Judging the range by the reading on the dashboard (684 kilometers) is like thinking the max speed of the car is the same as displayed max speed on the speedometer.
LOL, love the topshot!
Yeah, that’s good art.
NGL for a second I looked at this and was like that’s kinda cool. Then I realized I’m driving when tf am I going to be enjoying looking at a mountain panorama on a screen?
Also based on how little night time driving safety seems to have been considered in most modern infotainment (even by the germans who used to take this seriously) guessing this is terribly distracting on a late night drive.
Dear Mercedes-Benz,
This sucks.
Yours,
Everyone
DOA
I laugh at the screen size measurements but they are not standard ratio so you are expecting a 15in screen but in the car it is only 2 in tall.
Waiting for adds for places you will be driving buy to start popping up like some dystopian hell.
“Hey babe, come check out the size of my screen”
Cleary this is the “compensating for my tiny penis” metric .
At least it’s got the right aspect ratio.
“We don’t understand why drivers are so distracted, but we are confident that the answer is tech!”
I’ll just wait for the 2030 MY where it links to my neural chip and my AI glasses.
“Look at that nice large screen I can suction cup my phone mount to instead of reaching all the way to the windshield” – Someone who will buy this and still use their phone for everything instead of the built-in infotainment.
You know, I could see there being a big market someday for aftermarket infotainment units that suction cup over the stock screen. With the lazy integration most modern cars have, it will probably look no worse than it did from the factory.
Those seats look as though they might be nice. Other than that, the rest of it is a dystopian hellscape.
C Class used to mean something… a more modest though still very respectable interpretation of the venerable and revered E Class. Most generations of it anyway. Now however (and in some recentish iterations) it’s just plain awful.
The words ‘taste, refinement, and restraint’ have apparently been purged from the design dictionary at one of Europe’s oldest and proudest marques.
I weep for Mercedes… I really do. It all just makes me want to go out and find the nicest W124 Benz I can afford and live in yesteryear. 🙁
We live in hell
The only way to win this stupid game is to not play.
Nope, no thanks, not interested, you will not be selling me a car with this nonsense in it. You are dead to me.
I draw the line at the 8″(?) non-touch screen in my ’14 E350 with twiddle-knob, and I STILL prefer the two knob, row of buttons, 2-line display in my pair of non-iDrive BMWs. They can do everything I need to do in a car, and anything they can’t (navigation, primarily) works just fine on my phone in a vent clip.
Somebody invent a time machine so I can go back and buy cars from 15-30 years ago before they got stupid.
Or when competitors realize screens aren’t everything and this was all a mistake, which VAG is already doing. Mercedes pushed ahead finding the limit just as other OEM’s are putting buttons back.
My God, it’s full of stars!
Bump the screen and crack it, insurance adjuster is going to total the car.
God I hate power hungry screen based restaurant menus!
Just give me a simple non powered, non animated REALISTIC image of what’s on offer and an easily legible description and price next to it.
That is unless your goal is to have everyone hold up the line until they can actually read what is on it.
Even better is when they cheap out on the number of screens so it has to rotate through the menu items, and just as your parsing to the section you want the whole thing changes and you have to wait another 45 seconds for it to change back. I am by no means a Luddite, but lots of modern tech is just hostile against users.
It’s not that they’re cheaping out, but that a combination of a wildly overly expansive menu and that they just want to show you want they want to sell you – so try to make those items more appealing to you.
I’m probably more grumpy than I need to be today. I just feels that way when they have to swap between items available.
I think the goal in that is to weaponize the line behind into pressuring you to just select a more expensive option.
Who the hell wants this? I know mercedes isn’t catering to an audience that cares, but holy shit the replacement cost on this thing if it ever breaks. Not to mention you won’t use the vast majority of it – your map gets to be extra wide in carplay? Not remotely useful. The picture of whatever album, book, or podcast you are listening to is bigger? Cool.
Yeh, the closest I’ve come to this was a Ram pickup rental with a massive vertical screen and in maps it’s just like showing more map in the distance but that doesn’t help me navigate while I’m driving and just trying to see the next turn or two. Above a certain screen size it just seems like rapidly diminishing returns.
A. Their largest market – China
B. The 30 year old engineer that sits behind me at work and is on his 2nd Mercedes (C-Class)
The only truly memorable rental car experience I ever had was a C-class wagon in the Scottish Highlands. Memorable specifically because the control-everything-on-a-giant-screen in every modern Mercedes is abysmal, and because Scotland is a damp place. It became the passenger’s full-time job for that weeklong trip to keep all the defog and HVAC settings correct, because it’s physically impossible to work the tech-hell interface and drive simultaneously.
Mercedes also apparently didn’t consider that some places don’t have roads as straight and well-marked as the Autobahn, so the car alternated between screaming at us that it couldn’t see the road and trying to yoink the steering wheel hard enough to bin us into the nearest Loch.
Anyway, hope whoever leases these things enjoys them, but maybe consider a Lexus or something instead.
there is going to be advertisements all over that screen in 2-5 years i guarantee it. they will charge you $100 month to go “ad free”.
Use the OAT sensor to display a message “It’s cold out, tap “OK” to subscribe to heated seats”.
Targeted ads based on your search history. Better use Incognito Mode or Mom will get a hell of a shock when you’re taking her out to dinner.
How are you guys/girls all so prescient and funny? 😀
It’s funny because it’s true 🙂
Every article about a recent Mercedes product reads more like customer reviews from Best Buy than actual automotive content. I don’t blame the writers… when all you get are screen specs and “look, stars!” it’s tough to get enthusiasts, umm, enthused.
Mercedes is not adapting well. Performance, features, and style have been democratized for years now, undercutting their business case, and rather than pivoting and finding something new to differentiate themselves, they still think the answer is MOAR SCREENS and MOAR DISCO LIGHTING.
Yeh all these luxury brands seem to be missing the very obvious way they can differentiate is with beautiful lux materials and design (BMW sort of got this with the iX) not screens and club lighting. And even if this gets them sales in the short term I don’t think cheapening your brand pays off in the long term-of course that really doesn’t seem to have hurt BMW any 🙁
wow. Just…..wow. The screen doesn’t even have any shape. its just…. there. MB is perfect for anyone who loves a good LED, but beyond that, I don’t know why anyone would buy a modern one.