Complex COMAND: Exploring the tech in the 2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS
Cars
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today we're taking a look at the technology in the dashboard of the 2019 Mercedes Benz CLS450 and the first thing you'll notice Are these dual massive 12.3 inch display you've got in front of me on a single slab of black glass.
Now, this looks like the newest generation of Mercedes Benz as command system that inherit from the F class.
But it's not the very new with bleeding edge inbox system that will debut on the CLA.
So, basically the same stuff we had in the F class which is pretty good Now they aren't touch sensitive screens, so keep your greasy fingers off of the glass.
But there is a lot of touching to be done down below.
And that's because we have this command system that gives us the command controller that you'll use to move around through the interface, as well as a command touch system that gives you a haptic feedback ability to swipe.
Around the system your leading touch controls.
You've also got this short cut button along the bottom flanking the clock that take you very quickly to the main parts of the interface.
Now, overall the home screen, let's talk about what we have here.
This is the refresh of the command interface in the CLS.
And it has these large icons that sort of give you a very top level look at the mini functions that it offers.
There's a bit of a learning curve, it seems simple at first but then you get to a little bit of a steepness in that curve when you try to find functions like Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
But once you get past those little bits of quirks, those Mercedes Benz quirks It is pretty easy to use, one thing I really like is this favourites menu along the bottom that allows you to save whatever function you use most often, so that you don't have to go digging through menus to find them.
Popping into the navigation you'll see that we have The ability to take advantage of this massive screen with a large map that gives traffic information and it looks pretty good, has also pretty good voice command.
And we have a wide range of media sources, ranging from bluetooth, hands free for calling and audio streaming, we've got three USB ports, and it's in the console here as well as an SD card.
Slot.
Now one of the things that I really like about this car is that it makes it really easy to bluetooth pair your phone.
If you pop open the cup holder you'll see that there's an NFC point right here, and if you unlock your phone and just sort of hold it to it for a second, it will automatically send a request to pair with your phone and then get you set up on the pairing.
And then you just tap one button And your ready to go.
There is no searching through menus for the right part of the phone settings from bluetooth pairing.
You just tap and go.
Which is good if you have a lot of different phones in your family.
Of course the way that I like to interact with this most is with Android auto.
Now, if you connect it via USB, and you pop in to the connect menu, Android auto will automatically start up.
That's gonna give you access to your Google maps and a wide range of audio streaming apps.
Now, one thing that I will point out is that the touch controller her doesn't work with Android auto.
So, you'll have to use This sort of control knob here, and I assume that it works the same way with Apple CarPlay.
Now that's all on the main screen right here, but directly in front of us we have an identical display that is used as a digital instrument cluster.
You can control that with this sort of Touchpad on the steering wheel that allows you to swipe around and gain access to certain things like the turn by turn navigation, as well as viewing your current audio source.
You can even pop in here and change the design a little bit, to vary between a more sporty look, a little bit of a classy look or techy look, to something a little bit more conservative.
Now there are two touch pads on the steering wheel here.
They're just this little [UNKNOWN] and you use those to sort of swipe around through this interface.
But there's a second one here that you can also use to control the main interface over on the second display.
So you can kind of swipe around and control things on it much like you could with the touchpad down here on and the center.
And that allows you To pretty much access the entirety of your command infotainment system without ever taking your hands off of the wheel.
That's really nice.
Now one more thing before we go, it's gonna be my favorite feature in any luxurious Mercedes Benz, it's gonna be their energizing comfort system.
You pop over into the vehicle menu and it's gonna allow you to access a group a presets that tie into everything from the seat massagers to the ambient lighting.
Maybe even to a certain playlist that you've got saved on a USB drive.
And it allows you to set a refreshing or warmth or a energizing mood in the car that sort of sets the tone for how you wanna go driving.
And When you're at night time and you put it in warmth mode and all of these lights turns to sort of a bright red, it is nice and homey.
So there's when you look at all of the technology in the dashboard of the 2019 Mercedes Benz CLS but we haven't even scratched the surface of all of the features this car offers.
So be sure to check out our full review over on theroadshow.com to see what it's like to actually drive this thing.
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