Mercedes-Benz has been lauded for the two screens, one housing approach to infotainment and driver's information in their latest vehicles. Then along came Cadillac's immense 37-inch three-screen approach to data and entertainment in the 2021 Cadillac Escalade. Mercedes is upping the game with its new MBUX Hyperscreen, which will debut in the EQS all-electric sedan.
The MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience) was unveiled inn the 2018 A-Class and there are now more than 1.8 million Mercedes passenger cars with the equipment on the road worldwide. A second generation of the system debuted a few months ago alongside the new S-Class sedan. It's set to take another leap forward when the EQS makes the Hyperscreen available to buyers.
Here's what we know.
The screen is huge.
You can tell by the images of it that the screen is big. How big is it? The large, curved screen panel extends almost the entire width of the interior, from one A-pillar to the other. It measures over 56 inches wide and has 377 square inches of surface area. There is no vehicle on the market today with a similarly sized screen.
The screen incorporates digital and analog parts. There is a large digital surface that has traditional air vents integrated into the face. The Hyperscreen is surrounded by a continuous plastic front frame. The visible part of this frame is painted in a Silver Shadow color that has been applied in a three-coating process.
Photo courtesy of Mercedes-Benz
The large glass cover display of the Hyperscreen is curved in the molding process at a temperature of approximately 1,202 degrees Fahrenheit. The high-heat bending allows for a distortion-free view of the display unit across the entire width of the vehicle.
Ambient light has been installed on the lower part of the screen to give it the appearance of floating on the dashboard.
Mercedes has engineered the screen to have two coatings of the cover plate to reduce reflections and make cleaning easier. The screen is made a scratch-resistant aluminum silicate.
What happens to the screen in the event of an accident? Safety measures have been put in place as part of the engineering process. There are predetermined braking points alongside the side outlet openings as well as five holders that can "yield in a targeted manner in a crash thanks to their honeycomb structure" according to the automaker.
It's the brain and nervous system of the EQS.
In a recent statement, Sajjad Khan, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG and CTO said, "The MBUX Hyperscreen is both the brain and nervous system of the car." He described it further, saying, "The MBUX Hyperscreen continually gets to know the customer better and delivers a tailored, personalized infotainment and operating offerings without the occupant needing to click or scroll anywhere."
Two parts of the display feature OLED technology.
Photo courtesy of Mercedes-Benz
OLED technology is used on the central and front passenger displays of the Hyperscreen. The technology allows for images that are self-luminous while unused space appears deep black. Active OLED pixels radiate with a high color brilliance, resulting in high contrast values.
All of the graphics on the Hyperscreen are styled in a new blue/orange color scheme.
It doesn't just look high tech. It is.
The Hyperscreen has a powerful computer system running it consisting of 8 CPU cores and 24 gigabytes of RAM. It has a 46.4 GB per second RAM memory bandwidth.
There are a total of 12 actuators beneath the touchscreen that deliver haptic feedback during operation. If the finger touches certain points there, they trigger a tangible vibration in the cover plate that a person can sense to know that their touch command has been received by the system.
The Hyperscreen is connected to a multifunction camera and a light sensor, which adapts the brightness of the screen to ambient conditions.
The MBUX system can hold the information for up to seven profiles and can be individualize for multiple front passengers.
Front passengers get their own screen and operating area.
As part of the design, front passengers have their own display and operating area. Entertainment functions of the passenger display area are only available in countries where it is allowed. If the passenger seat is not occupied, the screen becomes a "digital decorative part" where animated stars are displayed.
Crisp, clean graphics help make the screen easy to operate.
Photo courtesy of Mercedes-Benz
The MBUX Hyperscreen features most of the functions you'd find on a traditional center console in a fully digital format. Through research, Mercedes learned that most infotainment use cases fall into the Navigation, Radio/Media and Phone categories. Because of this, they put the navigation application at the center of the screen.
Many suggestions for the use of infotainment technology can be made by the artificial intelligence within the MBUX system, which monitors user behavior and analyzes it for patterns. For example, the system can issue a birthday reminder or suggest items from a to-do list.
Even further, if you always call one particular person on Thursdays on your way home from work, a business card may appear on the screen with their contact information instead of you having to find their contact info by scrolling through your phone, utilizing a voice command, or clicking through several layers of the screen's menus. Mercedes emphasize that these prompts can be dismissed with one button touch.
Zero-layer living is designed to make the Hyperscreen easier to live with.
Photo courtesy of Mercedes-Benz
With the Hyperscreen's zero-layer feature, users do not have to scroll through sub-menus or give voice commands to complete popular tasks. Mercedes has placed the most important applications in a "situational and contextual way" at the top of the driver's field of vision.
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