New Mercedes-Benz S-Class revealed
The German brand’s top-shelf machine has some never before seen advanced features that are sure to leave your head spinning.
Mercedes-Benz’s flagship S-Class is one of the most advanced cars ever built.
The range-topping luxury sedan will be packed with never before seen safety features and unparalleled tech when it hits local roads in the second quarter of next year.
While most people won’t be able to stump up the $200,000-plus needed to step into the entry level version, the S-Class shows the future tech that will find its way into mainstream cars.
One of the groundbreaking safety features is the E-Active Body Control which senses a side impact and protects the occupants by raising the car’s height in the blink of an eye so the impact occurs in the strongest areas at the bottom of the car panels.
This is combined with new back seat airbags that deploy in severe front-on accidents to help shield the passengers in the rear outer seats.
But a big part of the S-Class’ tech is designed to help prevent accidents. It uses its ambient lighting — consisting of about 250 individual LED lights — to warn the driver with visual cues.
Mercedes-Benz says there are up to five screens in the vehicle. The centre dash is dominated by an enormous tablet-style screen which removes the need for almost all physical buttons and controls. This is combined with a digital dash with a 3D display.
S-Class owners are more often than not chauffeured around town, so the back is kitted out with three screens, one behind each front headrest and another in the centre armrest.
All are able to be controlled by Mercedes-Benz’s voice activated digital assistant that responds to “Hey Mercedes” and then your command.
A driver’s head-up display uses augmented reality to show directions displaying a turn signal on the road for you to follow.
But it isn’t all about the tech, there is some proper pampering to be had, including massaging seats with 10 different settings.
Plus there is expansive leg and shoulder room for passengers, with the S-Class back seats more like flying first class than economy.
And for the sustainability minded — a concept that might seem out of step with such an ostentatious machine — Benz claims it uses about 100kg of recycled materials in the S-Class and further 40kg of sustainable raw materials. One of the recycled items is the floor coverings made our of used nylon fibres.
Mercedes also claims that its 30-speaker Burmester sound system has 4D sounds, which uses two exciters in each backrest to reproduce the resonance of the music to add another dimension to the sound.