If you know anything about building your own computer, you’ll know there’s an entire industry dedicated to integrating bright (but useless) customizable RGB (red, green, blue) LED lights into the bodies of PCs. These lights, usually found in strips, can emit virtually any color you can think of, which can make for a fantastical, over-the-top, rainbow-drenched experience every time you power up your desktop.
Automakers have been using color-changing LEDs for ambient lighting in their interiors for years now. The Kia Soul was among the first cars to popularize the tech, with later generations featuring multi-colored lights around the speakers that flashed along with the music. Eventually, luxury automakers caught on, with companies like BMW and Mercedes-Benz integrating customizable ambient lighting into much of their respective lineups.
Mercedes just revealed the interior for its upcoming AMG four-door sedan, and it is absolutely stuffed to the brim with LED interior lighting, from the buttons to the cup holders, to the doors, to the steering wheel, to even the glass roof. For some, this might feel like overkill. But for people who build their own PCs, they’ll feel right at home.
Yes, Even The Glass Can Change Color
Mercedes-Benz is on the cusp of revealing its all-electric performance sedan, meant to replace the current AMG GT 4-Door Coupe. Instead of revealing the whole car at once, it’s releasing photos of the interior now, with plans to show off the car’s exterior at a later date. Think of it as a limited series on Netflix, where a new episode is released every week, instead of the whole season dropping at once.
Some parts of the new AMG GT 4-Door’s interior are typical sporty Mercedes, like the multiple large screens, contrasting stitched leather, and copious carbon fiber trim pieces. In its press release, the company makes a big deal about the dashboard being oriented towards the driver, with the 14-inch infotainment screen being angled to the left, separated on the dash by a strangely charming piece of accordion-shaped trim.
Looking at the photos, though, it’s hard not to be consumed by all of the bright red lighting coming from every orifice of the cabin. There’s a red glow coming from underneath the screens, from behind the door armrests, from around the air vents, from the two phone charging pads, and even from the three rotary buttons on the center console. Those dials, according to Mercedes, control electric motor response, cornering behavior, and traction intervention levels, respectively.
All of these lights are completely customizable, according to Mercedes. From the release:
High-resolution ambient styles can be selected as mood-enhancing background motifs for the displays. The color scheme of the instrument cluster, controls and ambient lighting are perfectly matched to these motifs. This allows customers to create their own personal atmosphere in the vehicle. The display design impresses with its exceptional aesthetics, precision and intuitive operation.
Check the right option boxes, and the panoramic glass roof can also be customized with different light colors in the shape of AMG emblems that hover like crowns over the front occupants’ heads:
At night, the panoramic glass roof can be transformed into a sparkling canvas with an available unique lighting display. Illuminated AMG emblems above the driver and front passenger’s heads and motorsport-inspired racing stripes across the entire roof surface shine in colors that match the interior ambient lighting.
I’m not hating on this stuff, to be clear. I’m all for more customization in vehicles, as it allows people to choose their own atmosphere and curate their personal vibe, depending on their mood, what they’re doing, or where they’re going.
I Forgot My Car Even Had This Feature
Still, all these bright lights leave me wondering: Does anyone actually adjust their ambient lighting? I understand that some cars change their interior lighting depending on drive mode, but that happens automatically. How often do people actually go into the menu to play around with different color schemes, really?
I ask because I owned a car with adjustable ambient lighting for three years, and after the first month of ownership, I totally forgot about it. My Ford Fiesta ST had a button on the dashboard that shuffled through five or six different colors for lights mounted on the dashboard and in the footwells. I played around with it after I bought the car, set it to a color I liked, and then didn’t touch it for years. I have to imagine many owners of other cars with this feature had the same experience.
On the flip side, I could see someone changing their LEDs to fit their mood constantly, especially if they have a car with this many lights to customize. Having different colors on the Fiesta was fun, but it was admittedly not very flashy, since the lights themselves were pretty dim. My gut feeling, though, is that this is more of a gimmick for salespeople to use on prospective customers at dealerships, only for those customers to play with it once or twice, then forget about it, as I did.
I’d like to hear it from you: Do you own, or have you ever owned, a car with customizable LED ambient interior lighting? If so, do you, or did you ever actually change the colors?
Top graphic image: Mercedes-Benz
And it only costs half as much as a stick of DDR5 RAM!
I could not even imagine a more hideous, repulsive aesthetic. Even an English footballer trying to spend his first professional paycheck would balk at this.
I love unicorn barf, but not in my car.
Mercedes-Benz once upon a time was a prime example of conservative awesomeness. Was it sorta boring? Yes. Was it insanely well put together and kinda timeless? Yes. The person who didn’t try and act cool because they couldn’t care less. That made them cool.
That was a long time ago. Now MB seems to be an influencer car, wanting you to click and subscribe, and showing off their lack of taste. Not even Steak-Umms instead of steak, more like some hydration powder that if you act now with my code you’ll get 20% off your first order.
Sad.
I was going to write the same thing, but your take parallels mine.
This thing exudes all the class of a TikTok influencer dolled up in aliexpress and temu quality and excess.
You couldn’t give me one.
I, too, enjoy the vape shop aesthetic
Oh man, the local drug dealers are going to love these.
They are the ones who could afford them. MB knows their audience I guess.
The F56 MINI had extensive ambient lighting. In addition, the ring around the infotainment could cycle through colors, duplicate the tachometer, act as a visual for volume control, change with the the drive mode, etc., etc., etc. It was all a dumb gimmick.
50% of the time I had it set to red. When I got bored with red, I changed it to blue.
dho dho dho dho “The system is down, the system is down.” dho dho dho dho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwZwkk7q25I
The Cheat is GROUNDED!
My middle daughter sends a picture of the Cheat and his light switch raves to the IT department when their system crashes. I’m so proud.
Strongbad… “Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time”
Man, brought me back to middle school and high school…
Color-changing LED lighting in cars is terrible.
I didn’t realize this originated with the Soul, but I wish it had ended there. In the Soul it’s kind of a funny little gimmick, but in an AMG it’s tacky as hell.
As the discussion rages within the creative communities about AI, how to use it and whether it’ll make designers redundant, I think this might be a case of too much Gorden Wagener and too little AI.
Mercedes-Benz owner here.
MB is now too lazy/cheap to make interiors that aren’t black anymore – so they have to do something to brighten up the dark hole….
This is not what we asked for.
The ambient lighting in my car can be set to multiple different colors in two different areas. The only time I change it is for xmas where it’s green on the dash and upper door panels and red on the lower/footwell area. Aside from the holiday season, they’re all soft blue.
When I look at that glass roof all I see is The Guild of Calamitous Intent, or possibly the suits The Investors wear.
There is literally no design left in the dashboard. There’s no shape or texture. Nothing to draw your eyes anywhere. No craftsmanship. If I wanted to stare at two giant monitors I’d sit at my desk. That’s what it looks like it should be doing. The dashboard has been turned into a got dang workstation. It looks like it’s ready for two screens of MS Office products. Excel on one and “Oops, something went wrong. Try again in a few minutes” on the other. Abhorrent.
Mercedes has gone all-in on corny gimmicks and we probably haven’t even found the limit yet. They’ll one-up themselves again with more kitschy garbage.
I truly hope the new Audi design boss is true to his word on reducing the screen footprint in newer cars. Audi has been a trendsetter in the past and if they can lead the way in bringing design back to interiors I’d much appreciate it. C&D even said the new Audi A5 has an interior design that could’ve been lifted from a Kia. Everyone has a big, swoopy screen on the dash now. There is a possibility that gimmicks like that will remain for the lower end, but premium products will again focus on design and textures. Then after a few years the more mainstream brands will follow. Just like they did with big grilles and lighting signatures.
Anyway, I hate it.
Couldn’t agree more. I stare at a screen for 8 hours a day. The last thing I want to do is stare at a screen during my commute too. I view driving as a respite. I love driving! If I have something I enjoy it helps make monotonous tasks entertaining.
I have absolutely no interest in anything German right now. They’re too far gone. I also agree re: Audi. Audi was one of the gold standards for interiors for years. I remember driving my dad’s C6 A6 to pick up my prom date in high school and feeling like a million bucks.
He eventually got a C8 A6 and it was built like Fort Knox. My mom had an Allroad from that era too and while it was a shitshow mechanically the interior was as nice after 7-8 years as it was when they bought it. My mom has a 2022 SQ5 now and it’s…nice, but not as nice as the stuff from the 2000s and 2010s. You could cover the badges and tell someone it’s the top trim of a regular car and some of them might believe you.
But the current stuff? Absolute shit show. Haptic bullshit feels cheap as hell, your front passenger never needs a stupid slapped on screen ever, it’s all just tacky. BMW and Mercedes are arguably even worse. The new X3’s interior is on par with my 2022 Hyundai. I might legitimately consider buying a certified X3 M50i but absolutely not until they fix that horrendous interior and use the mid cycle refresh to make it look less like a bulbous EV egg.
We can single out the Germans all we want but the same basic layout is used in everything now. The Kia K5 and Cadillac Escalade dashboards are two flavors of the same exact thing. Looooong screen. There’s no difference when looking at the dash of an affordable compact car and a $150,000 Cadillac. The K5’s dash actually looks a lot like my S5’s dash now that I’ve seen it.
There’s a reason you don’t see stuff like this in the super high-end of the spectrum. It’s because it’s garbage. They want materials and craftsmanship, not TikTok and Teams.
I thought the passenger screen was dumb when it came out and I still think it’s dumb. Everyone has a phone or an iPad. It’s e-waste literally tacked onto a dashboard with two 10mm bolts.
THANK YOU! Somebody had to call it for what it is! Might’ve been a cool feature in 2005, maybe 2010, but everyone, I mean everyone who wants a screen these days has their own.
Definitely agree. I used to long for the disposable income to have an AMG-something, but looking at this interior I couldn’t help but dread staring at all those screens instead of enjoying the drive. It’s a genuine bummer.
The Guild of Calamitous Intent! Wonderful! Thank you!! ::I understood that reference.::
I don’t get that reference, yet I still get it. Wonderful name.
Watch the Venture bros. You won’t regret it
Watch and Ward’s new ride. I bet Yaz sounds great on the stereo.
Id say Bowie would be fantastic
I halfway expected Blade to come in, because those lights are the equivalent of the vampire rave party.
I get more Tron vibes ha
So cringe. So tacky.
The Chinese will LOVE this.
As well as tech bros.
I was talking to my wife about this yesterday in regards to them destroying the wagon with all these gross lights and screens. Now we see this.
Mercedes, WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER? Tech bros? Young Chinese heirs? I cannot think of a single person I know in real life who could even come close to affording a mercedes, and would want this disgusting interior.
I’m thinking bordello red for that Friday night cruise of the strip looking for entertainment. For the rest of the time, maybe a slow fade from one color to the other, all dimmed down as low as possible so as to not be distracting.
They were so busy trying to figure out if they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
*Stares at interior*
That is one big pile of shit.
When I see modern Mercedes interiors, I hear Chris Rock in my head reminding me “There’s No Sex in the Champagne Room”.
I set the RGB lights on my keyboard & PC once, and I don’t touch them again. And, despite having more than one color option – I’ll pick red every time.
I cannot see any reason to change this after the first day.
Haha I am the same way I set any RGB to red and just leave it. I like more old school PC building where my PC is built for gaming and not for showing off how cool my lighting is. Though my desktops are all full size cases and they would sit under a desk or next to my TV stand. Never really understood dumping money into lighting vs a better GPU/CPU/Ram etc but I guess what ever floats people’s boats it just isn’t for me.
My Eyes! Too much of a good thing is too much!
Our new-to-us 24 Ioniq 6 has well thought out color adjustable ambient lighting. – there are strips under the dash, an animated one on the dash, and on the front and rear doors. Like you, once we got the car I went into the menu and played with the colors (there’s a color wheel so any color you like) and there’s also the ability to choose two-tones for the doors. I settled on an electric-blue as it seemed fitting for the EV and goes well with the light-grey interior. Red looks pretty good too. There are options to auto change based on mode, and you can tweak the intensity. I have it where I like it, and I have no desire to go back and fiddle with it, and if you keep it reasonably subdued, it’s a nice touch to the interior,.
Our 25 Maverick Hybrid Lariat trim also came with factory ambient lighting. What a joke! Unlike the Hyundai, the Maverick’s ambient lighting is just about useless. Mostly just a couple of cyan leds on the front door handles and in the footwells. No color adjustment and Ford when cheap and didn’t put any ambient lighting at all in the back, nor where you really need it the most, over the central phone cubby. It was standard in the Lariat trim but I would have been pissed if it would have been another extra cost option.
So the AMG over-does it, Hyundai seems to have done it right, and FORD does what FORD does, and went cheap.
The goggles do nothing!
The ones running through the door panels and dash i could take or leave but I adore the pageantry to the in glass effects.
Being said as far as the color is concerned, I cant hold it against a company for paying the extra 3 cents to make the colors adjustable.
Counter though, it makes it hard to advertise without making it look like a 2003 nightclub
…I literally bought the case I did for my PC because it didn’t have side windows. I wouldn’t have even had a light-up GPU if it weren’t for the botched 50-series launch.
If it’s not a subscription or a separate downloadable app with ads, I’d probably just leave the lights off or choose an inoffensive color. And dim the ones noncritical to see at night.
Just put Mercedes out of their misery already. They haven’t just lost the plot, they’ve sent the plot to Saturn. I get that the social media/nouveau rich/Chinese tech mogul crowd is who all Ze Germans are trying to woo right now but that demographic moves on to the next shiny object in a matter of months.
Mercedes might be able to attract some folks with these ostentatious flex machines but they’ll come and go before they can blink…and then they’ll be left with a bunch of 5,000 pound paperweights coming off leases that no one will touch. It’s not sustainable, but hey…no one in corporate oligarch world cares about anything but the next earnings call.
I also think we’re about to see a societal shift away from conspicuous consumption. The wealthy are quite literally destroying the world in plain sight and even some of the most unbothered normies out there are starting to notice. Class consciousness is suddenly very in, and in short order it’s not going to be a good look to be driving around in a $200,000 German strip club/rave….
Hallelujah, holy shit. Where’s the Tylenol? I AM MAD BECAUSE I SPENT SO MUCH OF MY LIFE LOVING GERMAN CARS AND NOW THEY’RE UNRECOGNIZABLE!
Fine with this so long as they spin off the G wagen into its own brand and don’t change anything about it
I’m fine if they spin off the Gwagen as a commercial vehicle and I never have to see another one on the roads again unless it’s painted in olive drab and travelling from one base to another.
Well, they already did that. They’re still absurdly expensive though IIRC, and only available in a handful of markets, so basically no one buys them. Good job, Mercedes!
Our local mail used to be delivered in a geländewagen.
What is it with foreign obsession with mercedes worktrucks? They were known as loud rust buckets back then. Now they are also visually loud.
What I find interesting about calling out the chinese is that China especially has a history of inconspicuous wealth. Thats why the E class long body was tailor made for china. The S class stood out too much
History, yes. But that’s no longer the case. A lot of the ridiculous design choices and over screen-ification luxury brands are relying on now are specifically to try to get a foothold in that market. BMW in particular has been open about it.
Idk man, I see plenty of Chinese-speaking tourists covered head to toe in designer logos. Like ostentatious, in-your-face dolce and gabanna, louis vitton prints from hat, blouses, handbags, pants, shoes just PLASTERED in logos. I’m sure there are lots of folks who still like to keep it under the radar, but there are certainly plenty who love to show it off too. The inherent bias in this comment is these are tourists (and certainly not all of them), not folks living everyday, but they have to live somewhere, and the market is ripe.
Broadly speaking, I think the Chinese have gone from shunning wealth in order to be somewhat “class conscious”, to boldly advertising wealth to show off how successful China has become. I mean, just look at the city skylines of Shanghai or Hong Kong at night. I’d love to own a business selling blackout curtains over there.
*Saturn executives in 1995, receiving a modern Mercedes driven by a remotely controlled Tesla Optimus through a time vortex in their largest conference room in Spring Hill, TN*
Whoa whoa whoa, we’re into building cars with plastic panels and throwing BBQs for customers at our dealerships, not this. You have the wrong guys.
It seems all of Germany is trying to destroy their Auto industry. VW is even more disappointing.
Sad to see our heroes become the villians.
It’s a real bummer because for so much of my life an M/RS/AMG or lower end Porsche would’ve been a dream for me. When I’m due for a new car in 3-4 years barring unforeseen circumstances *knocks on wood* I should finally be in a position that I can buy one.
…and yet I have absolutely no interest in any of them. I’m probably just going to save money, get a Japanese SUV of some sort or a Rivian R2, and that’ll be that.
With the price of RAM, storage, and graphics cards these days, the AMG may be a more sound economical choice than building a PC.
I wish I could laugh at this without sobbing a bit at the end.
I do a lot of tinkering and built a home server….to get RAM its actually cheaper to buy an entire used server box with ram sticks included than to just buy the ram separately. Free server! For me it’s great since I needed the whole setup, but the pricing is absolutely wild. A DDR5 setup will reach 5 figures in no time.
This seems like something you only bother with when you first get the car to find the least obnoxious color and then you never touch it again.
Checks out, 90’s innovation in a current Mercedes product.