Close to perfection: Deep-dive into the tech of the 2018 Mercedes-Benz S560
Cars
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Welcome to a deep dive into the technology of the 2018 Mercedes Benz s560 cabriolet.
Now, this is a new name for the old s550 and its got a lot of really cool drivers aids.
But the infotainment system, the command system.
Well that's a little bit tricky.
But let's start with a driver's tack.
So of course there is adaptive cruise control.
Mercedes-Benz can follow a lead car and even bring itself to a full and complete stop.
I can select how far apart I want my car to be from the lead car, and it can even read speed limits.
So let's say I set my car for 70 miles an hour in a 65 mile per hour zone, When that zone drops down to 55 miles per hour, so too will the Mercedes.
The system can even use GPS data to slow for a curve or an upcoming intersection, which means that the system here in the Mercedes is a lot more usable for the city than any other adaptive system out there.
To the high left of the driver are buttons for the lane keeping assist and the steering assist.
Now lane keeping assist keeps you centered in the lane.
If you bump over it, it'll apply your brakes and your steering to kinda get you back centered.
But during my time with it, it didn't seem to be all that reliable.
For steering assist, you need to be in adaptive cruise control mode.
And then here's where the fun kicks in, because the car pretty drives itself.
Now it won't do it over really twisty, turny roads, but it can keep you centered in the lane while you're going straight and on some nice gentle sweepers.
The car tends to turn itself just a little bit late, so it was a little hard for me to trust.
But on the whole, it's pretty darn cool.
And just to prove that we are all really lazy people at heart, there's even a lane change assist All it needs to do is signal, if the car says that it's okay, it will actually change lanes on its own.
Now this out of all of them was the one technology that worked 100% of the time when I was with the car.
Now, of course, you've got to keep your hands on the wheel while you're driving or the Mercedes will get really mad at you.
Remember these are drivers' aids, this is not full autonomous driving.
The command infotainment system is displayed on a 12.3 inch screen, actually scratch that.
The entire dash is a screen and it's split evenly between the gauge cluster, and the command system.
You can control the command system a few different ways, you can use these shortcut buttons down here.
This little dial controller and then this giant selector, or if you're a video game affixianado, you can just use these right here on the steering wheel.
It's pretty cool there is this tiny little touch pads.
Well the command system, is good it's just not great.
I mean the graphics are pretty good, there is voice and handwriting recognition but there is just a lot of menus and sub-menus to deal with.
So, gor example lets say I just wanna change the air direction so I've gotta hit the little car shortcut button.
Scroll up to Climate Control, click on that.
Click on Air Distribution, click on Driver and now finally I can decide which way I want my air to go.
I mean that's just way too many steps for simple function.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both standard and they function really well within the command system flipping back and forth between your texting and your phone and your radio or what have you.
The next generation of [UNKNOWN] for Mercedes Benz is called m-box.
I know it's a strange name but I expect it to be a huge leap over this command system.
However, for now what you see is what you get.
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