Mercedes-Benz reveals new MBUX Superscreen for E-Class

The interior of the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class has been unveiled, including the new MBUX Superscreen that will be available in the sixth-generation executive car.

This comes as part of a concerted effort to provide it with a significantly more contemporary cabin and digital-based user experience than its predecessor.

Set for a start to UK sales in saloon form in July, the new E-Class will follow its EQE electric sibling in offering buyers the choice of separate instrument and portrait-style infotainment displays or a dashboard covered almost entirely in pixels.

Modelled heavily on the MBUX Hyperscreen already offered by Mercedes-Benz as a high-cost option, the MBUX Superscreen combines a free-standing digital instrument display with central infotainment and optional passenger displays.

The latter two are housed beneath a single sheet of glass to give the E-Class's interior a clean and uncluttered look that's perpetuated by a reduction in the number of analogue controls.

As well as doing away with the centre console-mounted infotainment control pad, Mercedes has provided the E-Class with new digital air-conditioning controls within the central infotainment display.

Additionally, the MBUX Superscreen does away with the existing E-Class’s four central and two outer circular air vents, replacing them with a long ventilation band across the top of the dashboard.

Among the options is a new head-up display. It receives a larger field and new augmented-reality functions, as seen on the latest S-Class and the four models based on Mercedes' EVA electric car platform.

Mercedes has also provided the new E-Class with a more advanced ambient-lighting system that can be programmed to pulse in combination with music from the audio system. It's also used as a warning for other functions, including the parking assistant,  the intersection approach system and the braking assistance.

The new MBUX system adopts developments first revealed on the EQE SUV. Among them is the ability to install third-party apps. When it goes on sale later this year, the E-Class will come with various pre-installed apps, including Angry Birds, TikTok, Vivaldi, Webex, Zoom and Zynk – the latter capable of providing on-demand video streaming for the central infotainment display and the optional passenger display. 

A Dual Light Control (DLC) allows the passenger to watch movies and other content on the passenger display while the car is in motion, with sensors disabling that display if it detects driver distraction. 

Another new development is an optional camera available with the MBUX Superscreen. Mounted atop the dashboard, it allows the driver to take selfie photographs or partake in online video conferences when the car is stationary.

Although Mercedes is yet to divulge technical details to its latest MBUX, it claims that it operates in a faster and more seamless fashion than previous incarnations of the in-house developed operating system.

New to the E-Class is artificial-intelligence software that allows the MBUX to adapt itself to the personal habits of the driver. By monitoring routines, the software can automatically set the temperature of the air-con and the intensity of the seat heaters.

It will even wind down the driver’s side window when you approach a parking station used regularly to allow you to take a ticket without having to operate the window yourself.