Hands-on with Mercedes' Hyperscreen display in the EQS
Cars
Speaker 1: Today I am behind the wheel of the all new 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQs five 80. It is the top spec version of the flagship electric sedan from Mercedes-Benz. And one of the most interesting technologies in this, aside from the electrified power train is this hypers screen, which comes standard on the five 80, or is optional on the lower spec, single motor four 80 plus. So today we're gonna take a walkthrough through this [00:00:30] huge multiscreen system and see exactly what makes a tick. Now, the hyper screen itself is basically a huge single pain of curve that stretches all the way from door pillar to door pillar, and it contains three bonded displays. Now in the middle, we've got a huge 17.7 inch O lead touch screen with the corners kind of clipped off. So it better fits into the flow of the dashboard and made it to that.
Speaker 1: We've got a pair of 12.8 [00:01:00] inch touch screens right here, serving as my digital instrument cluster, and a second companion screen over for the passenger that we'll dig into later now to start the system. The first thing I'm gonna wanna do is use my fingerprint to log in and authenticate. Now I've got my Mercedes, uh, account linked to this car. And so you're able to tie a fingerprint scan, facial ignition, even voice recognition biometrics into the system so that whenever you hop into the car, it automatically logs you in as your account, you can hold [00:01:30] up to seven accounts. So if you've got a multi person household, everybody can have their own Mercedes me profile that does everything and stores all of their preferences separately. Now that's important when we get to the home store screen. Now this main screen is what Mercedes calls its zero layer concept.
Speaker 1: And it is a simplified version of the MBX infotainment that is built to work with the EQs with specific needs. Now we've got on this screen, it a large map that has, uh, 3d map information, [00:02:00] multiple views. It's the same navigation system that we've seen previously on Mercedes vehicles, but with the EQ west, it has tied into it data for charging and infrastructure. So as you scroll around the map, you will see charging stations with live information about the charging rate and how many points there are and how many of those points are available to charge. Now, when it's time to charge, you simply tap one of them and it gives you all the information about what you need to do. You can go there, plug in all of the payment, happens [00:02:30] automatically through the vehicle system. So you don't even have to get an app out of your phone or tap your credit card to pay up the top corner.
Speaker 1: We've got this little EQ pop out, and that's gonna have information about your destination selection, charging stations nearby once a, again, quick shortcuts to things like parking spaces, but you've also got information about the range of the vehicle and the ability to customize your charging options. One thing that stands out here is a feature called eco charging. Now, what that's gonna do is limit your maximum charging rate from [00:03:00] a peak of 200 kilowats down to a more sane 100 kilowats. And it's also gonna maximize your state of charge at around 80%. And that is going to give you around 300 miles of range with each charge, but also it's gonna prolong the life of the battery. So if you're interested in hanging onto your EQs for decade and decades to come, that's gonna be the setting to activate. Now, along the bottom edge of the screen, we have what makes zero layer zero layer.
Speaker 1: It is a selection of artificial intelligence [00:03:30] based suggestions for things that the vehicle might want you to do. You always have your audio source in your phone right here. Mercedes thinks those are the, that you'll always want to do. But over here in the corner, you have your intelligent suggestions. So if every time you get in your car, you turn on the massage function. You'll start to see that the vehicle suggests massage. When you get into the car, if it's as specific as whenever you leave the gym at five o'clock on a weeknight, you turn on the massage function. You'll notice that it only suggests that around [00:04:00] that time, but when you get in the car in the morning, maybe you like to tune to a radio station or dial into a conference call. You'll see those suggestions down here in the corner as well.
Speaker 1: It's based on the time of day, the driver's preferences, where the vehicle is and a number of other functions for giving those suggestions. Now, interestingly, all of the AI sort of machine learning, suggestion based things happening here happen right in the dashboard of the car. So none of that goes up to the cloud and Mercedes doesn't Snoop on your preferences and habits [00:04:30] as a driver or so I'm told, swiping down from the top, you get your sort of favorites that you can store to take you to various elements of the infotainment system. You've also got a select of quick functions here that are not customizable, but for things that you might want to turn on and off quite often, things like your lane keep assistance, your head up display and the ability to activate special traction system for using snow chains on the vehicle now to get to the rest of the menu.
Speaker 1: It's as simple as tapping the home button down here, and you get a menu that pops [00:05:00] up with, uh, very familiar looking set of icons from the NUX system in the rest of the Mercedes range of vehicles, things like your apps, your terrestrial and satellite radio media selection. My favorite part of the menu is going to be the comfort system. And that's where you're gonna customize things like the 10 different massage settings you have to choose from. And you'll also be able to customize is the multi-zone RGV, ambient lighting. Now specific to the EQs. We have the EQ menu, and that's going [00:05:30] to bring back up that charging option screen, where you can adjust, uh, whether you wanna use standard eco charging, uh, a customize your departure time and win your vehicle's going to charge. You also have a range menu that shows you what your current range is and what you can do to maximize that range.
Speaker 1: So for example, adjusting your climate control or turning on and off certain functions for the feet or eco driving functions or eco driving modes, that's gonna help you to maximize your range. And you've also got the consumption screen where you can [00:06:00] keep an eye on how efficiently you've been driving over the last various periods of time. And if you pop into the applications menu, you'll find that there's a selection of games that you can take advantage of when you're waiting for your car to charge. You can only use 'em when you're parked and you got things like Sudoku or Teris now Teris is a little difficult to use with the steering wheel controls, but Hey, it's better than sitting around doing nothing. Now in front of me, we have the digital instrument cluster. This also is very familiar to the man Mercedes S class [00:06:30] in that it is a 12.8 inch screen.
Speaker 1: And you control that with the steering wheel controls right here in front of, you can bring up a menu to select between a variety of views. I think there's about maybe seven or eight different views you can choose from here. And things like displaying the map right in front of you, or having a more traditional looking classic look, which are two gauges in the center area that you can swipe between to view different information. Now, the hyper screen does not feature the three [00:07:00] dimensional display with depth like the S class does partially because Mercedes wants to, uh, keep that special to the standard S class. But also because of the way that these displays are bonded to the glass, you have a curved screen, which means that the, uh, 3d technology that Mercedes use this right now to simulate depth, doesn't actually work here, perhaps we'll see it later, but no promises now for the next bit, I wanna talk about the passenger screen and for that, I'll turn it over to my good buddy Antoine [00:07:30] wearing a hat.
Speaker 1: Now here in front of me, I have the passenger display another 12.8 in screen that looks very similar to display because it uses the same Ole technology. Now, the way that Mercedes puts a little bit of a gradient on the edge of their interface, kind of helps this whole thing flow as a contiguous interface. But it's very obvious whenever the light hits it, that these are three distinct and separate screens. Now, if nobody is sitting here, you don't really get a lot on this, display us a compass [00:08:00] that just moves live with the vehicle. Not very fun to look at, but once the feet sensor detects that there's a human being sitting in this seat, it gives you a little button down here that you can push to power it up. And you're greeted with the same login screen that you would get on the main display.
Speaker 1: The same seven user profiles are stored over here. So if you are already have a Mercedes account tied to the vehicle, you can pull up your favorite radio stations and things over here on this side of the vehicle. Once you log in, you're greeted with what is [00:08:30] basically a completely second UX infotainment system, everything that you would normally see on the main screen and an F class or an E-Class you can find right here on the dashboard, things like navigation, phone, audio sources. So you can select your own media playback from an, uh, USB port or from satellite or terrestrial radio. And if you pair a Bluetooth headset to this, well, you can listen to your own audio source, independent of the rest of the car. You've also got your [00:09:00] Mercedes apps, the ability to adjust your same comfort settings for your own massage. You've also got the ability to monitor the vehicle information, your range, and adjust things like the charging.
Speaker 1: Now, the interesting thing about completely D MBX over here on the passenger side is that it allows the person in the shotgun seat to truly serve as a co-pilot. So let's say hatless, Antoine's driving around and he looks over to me and says, Hey, we're [00:09:30] getting a little low on charge. Uh, maybe you can find us somewhere to charge in or better yet. I'm a little hungry. Find me some place to get a really good sandwich. I can pop into the navigation on my screen and gain access to the same destination search to find us somewhere to go. Now, once I find that destination, I can select it, set it as a destination, and then send it over to the main screen for hatless Antoine to use. When navigating now he's not had to take his hands off of the wheel, his eyes off the road.
Speaker 1: He hasn't had to touch a screen [00:10:00] or a button, and I've been able to be very helpful in this situation. I can also do things like queue up a radio station or a playlist, and with the tap of a button, send that over to the main bur master audio system for everyone in the car to enjoy. Now, what this does, is it transfers. What I thought was going to be a gimmick, a thing that you use to show off how much horsepower you're putting down to the ground, to your passenger, into a truly useful feature that I hope makes it into more Mercedes vehicles in the future, back to you. Hatless [00:10:30] Antoine overall. It's a, it's a very complicated system, but it's only really as complicated as you choose to make it. You can dive pretty deep into the menus and spend a lot of time sort of getting lost in the system, customizing things that you like if you're really into technology, but at the same time, if you're the kind of person that likes the more hands off approach you can kind of learn to rely on that sort of, uh, AI suggestion.
Speaker 1: And then of course, you've also got the voice command. So you can eight things like, Hey, Mercedes set the temperature to 72 [00:11:00] degrees.
Speaker 2: I'm setting the temperature to 72 degrees
Speaker 1: And you'll never have to dive into the menu to do pretty much anything. So there's been your look at the Mercedes-Benz hyper screen in the 2022 Mercedes EQs, five 80. Be sure to check out our full first look over on the roads, joe.com for even more information about, well, the car that's around this screen and what it's like to actually drive.
