The new S-Class, the flagship sedan from Mercedes-Benz, once again pushes the tech envelope while offering one of the most luxurious rides on the road.
Wayne Cunningham
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
Mercedes-Benz gave its S-Class a major rework for the 2014 model year, smoothing out the bodywork and vastly updating the tech. The resulting S550 is an extraordinary luxury sedan that will have the competition struggling to keep up.
The superwide main LCD shows this new, detailed map. It includes 3D-rendered buildings, real-time traffic, and even which intersections have traffic lights.
Mercedes-Benz adds its app integration feature to the S-Class, and includes a healthy sampling, from Google search to TuneIn Internet radio. Unfortunately, the connection and load times for these apps render them largely unusable.
Audio sources in the S550 are abundant, although the interface still distinguishes between broadcast and local media. Along with Bluetooth audio, the S550 includes two USB ports in its center console, one for iOS devices and one for USB drives.
Along with a list of albums, artists, genres, and tracks, you can select music by cover art. Voice command also lets you request specific artists, albums, or tracks.
