CES 2016: Mercedes unveils digital customisable dashboard

Mercedes-Benz has shown off a digital, customisable dashboard with two adjacent high-resolution displays.

Mercedes-Benz has shown off a new digital only customisable dashboard comprised of two adjacent high resolution displays and it looks exquisitely beautiful.

When you see the long and thin display panel, you wonder why we didn’t have display dashboards like this years ago.

Cars such as the Tesla have a display that sits below a more traditional dashboard and is positioned around the middle of the car. In its new generation E-Class to be unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show next week, Mercedes uses two long thin displays connected side-by-side.

Mercedes previewed the digital dash at the CES consumer technology show held in Las Vegas this week.

The new Mercedes digital dashboard.

The beauty of Mercedes’ dash is that you can totally change the components and instruments displayed on it. The dash can be configured using swipe gestures on knobs attached to the steering wheel.

For example, if you don’t want to show the engine speed on the left hand panel, you can display instead an indicator showing fuel efficiency.

You can change the design completely, substituting more sporty looking instruments or futuristic designs.

The right-hand panel can be configured to show the navigation system, or it can be a control panel for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You connect a smartphone to a USB port in the car to activate Apple’s and Google’s music entertainment systems.

Mercedes says the digital dash will be available in new E-Class cars this year and it will be rolled out to other Mercedes models over time.

Chris Griffith travelled to CES in Las Vegas courtesy of Sony and Acer