Mercedes-Benz unveiled the 2024 E-Class’s interior, and while its cabin is not a radical departure in design from existing Benzes, the new E-Class is packed full of interesting and advanced features that will influence the rest of the lineup like a selfie camera and built-in apps for TikTok and Zoom.
‘Customers can look forward to a particularly immersive entertainment experience in the new E?Class,’ Mercedes-Benz explained. ‘Music, games and streaming content can be experienced in the car with almost all the senses.’
One of the major upgrades in the 2024 E-Class is the Super screen, which combines the large standard central touchscreen with a second display in front of the passenger. (Unlike the EQS’s Hyper screen, the digital gauge cluster remains a standalone display.) It looks beautiful, with slim air vents that curve around the top of the screen and a row of touch-capacitive buttons sitting below the center display.
The rest of the cabin is largely similar to what we’ve seen from other new Mercedes models, with a large center console, floating armrests on the door panels, and tons of ambient lighting, including one long strip that surrounds the entire dash.
There are new leather color and wood trim options, like open-pore wood with a backlit Mercedes star pattern, and even base models have higher-quality surfaces.
The 2024 E-Class will come standard with a 17-speaker Burmaster 4D surround sound system with sound transducers in the front seats, and it features Dolby Atmos technology in addition to supporting Spatial Audio through Apple Music.
Streaming video content is available on the passenger screen, and depending on regulations, it could be allowed on the center screen in the future when Mercedes’ Level 3 Drive Pilot system is activated. What will be available at the launch of the new E-Class are third-party apps that don’t require smartphone mirroring through Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Mercedes has installed multiple safeguards to make sure E-Class drivers won’t be distracted by the passenger’s screen. The touch function of the screen is only activated if the sensors in the passenger seat detect an occupant; otherwise, it acts as a screensaver.
Dual light control technology acts as a “visual shield,” making the passenger screen invisible to the driver, depending on what sort of content is being shown. That selfie camera tracks the driver’s eye movements, taking into account how often and for how long the driver looks over toward the passenger screen. The car can also automatically dim the passenger screen to make it less distracting to the driver while still being visible to the passenger.
‘The Mercedes E-Class will be fitted with the latest Driver Monitoring System to prevent the risk of distraction for the driver,’ said Tom Leggett, vehicle technology specialist at Thatcham Research. ‘A camera (usually in the driver’s display) analyses the driver’s eye movements and can detect whether the eyes are looking at the front passenger screen. If this is the case the brightness of the passenger screen is reduced, and a warning is issued to the driver. Additionally, the passenger display has ‘dual light control (DLC)’ that prevents dynamic content such as films from being seen peripherally by the person behind the wheel. This further reduces the risk of distracting the driver.’
An ‘Active Ambient Lighting with Sound Visualisation’ system allows passengers to experience music with three senses.
‘Pieces of music and the sound from films or apps can be felt and now also ‘seen’,’ Mercedes-Benz explained. ‘Visualisation takes place on the light strip of the Active Ambient Lighting.’
This light strip lines the entire car interior and lights up in time to the audio, whether it’s music or TikTok videos.
‘For example, fast sequences of beats can cause rapid light changes, while flowing rhythms can create softly merging lighting moods,’ the car giant explained.
The new E-Class will be one of Mercedes’ last gas-powered cars, as the brand is set to be EV only by 2030. The futuristic interior will launch in the Mercedes E-Class W214 model, which will go on sale this summer.