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
Yes I have/had cars with changeable colors and did run through all of them when I got the car, then it was set and forget.
For the sake of night vision, I almost always set anything to red. Replaced my dome lights with red; set my head units to red illumination where available.
For safety’s sake I might argue for that to be the default, but I assume that would need more studying. At any rate, yeah, I would assume that to be a gimmick, except maybe if rear passengers could control the lights in their portion of the car…something for the kids to play with unless or until it breaks. I don’t know. Just speculating for any use case.
I swapped my Pioneer head unit into my new (to me) MX-5 at the weekend, and in the course of setting it up, I remembered that the stereo had multiple colour choices, and that I’d just left it on light blue for years.
As the dash on the MX-5 is orange/red, I’ve set the stereo to amber, and probably won’t touch it again for years.
The biggest practical use of RGB lighting is being able to set it to warm white, rather than cube farm style blue fluorescent light
Absolutely, I’ve got all my RGB stuff set to the same soft amber.
I have an Audi SQ6 with color-changeable ambient lighting. You can even purchase “themes” that combine lighting with special graphics on the display. All I have done is change the ambient color from red to purple. (I know that red is better on the eyes at night, but I didn’t like it.)
Idk if I got sensitive eyes or what, but I find ambient lighting distracting. Mostly if it changes color. I’m focused on the road, changing lights in my periphery is just a huge annoyance.
For night driving, I like my cabins dark, with reds/oranges for the instrument displays. It’s obvious easiest on the eyes which is why every car did it forever.
So, who sued Mercedes after they got in an accident because the traction control didn’t save them?
Back in 2000 or so, LEDs were starting to show up on things like spinning platter hard drives. A company I worked for developed a video server with 24 drives, but they opted for blue LEDs over the typical red ones. An engineer who worked on the project told me the blue LEDs were ~$6 each vs the red ones which were ~$1. Apparently, the marketing people thought the blue ones were worth the added expense to visually stand out from just about everything else on the market and in the racks.
I rented an early Soul in Toronto and got a kick out of the adjustable lighting. Overall, it was a pretty decent rental, and I was impressed with how far Kia had come so quickly since their early offerings in the US.
My 2014 Fiesta had the color change lighting. I set it once to a color I liked, and never changed it again.
Let’s be honest. Some people will like this. Heck, some people may even be able to make something interesting, dare I say attractive?
However, I am not, and will not be that person. To me, it’s just plain old nasty. And judging by their reaction, the seats agree with me.
Is none a choice? If so, I bet it goes back to the default setting each time.
I have one of those cars that has a few bits of interior LED lighting, and most likely has the physical hardware to control the color on them, but my trim level just didn’t get the option to do so. It’s a small thing but honestly I would enjoy being able to change it, because the locked color (teal) doesn’t match the color of the other switches/buttons (orange). It’s super annoying and triggers my OCD every time I drive at night.