The Mercedes EQS has this vast all-digital dashboard

By topgear, 08 January 2021

It’s not long now before Mercedes reveals its all-electric flagship, the hugely significant EQS. So here’s something to whet your appetite – the slippery saloon’s entirely digital dashboard.

The curved glass panel houses Merc’s new so-called ‘Hyperscreen’ infotainment system, spread across what looks like three displays that span “almost the entire width” of the dashboard and “appear to blend seamlessly” together.

1
2
3

For you IT types, the optional system runs eight CPU cores and 24 gigabytes of RAM. There are 12 actuators to generate haptic feedback for your pokes, pinches and swipes, and we’re told the screens themselves (OLEDs for the passenger and centre screen, presumably an LCD for the driver) are especially scratch-resistant and coated to make them less reflective and easier to clean. The passenger’s screen automatically switches off (or to a static image, such as the stars in the images above) if there’s no-one sat in the passenger’s seat.

Now, the really big worry with massive touchscreen-based infotainment systems is that they can be pretty distracting. But Merc claims the latest version of its MBUX software (first fitted to the new S-Class, albeit with a smaller portrait touchscreen) is “radically easy to operate”, with sophisticated AI that learns how the driver uses the system and “proactively displays the right functions at the right time”.

Mercedes calls it the ‘zero-layer’. The idea is the most important, most frequently used functions are only ever one tap away, so the driver shouldn’t have to scroll through sub-menus or issue voice commands half as often.

More as we have it.