Complaint Review: Invent-Tech

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2014 S-class Interior Revealed, Takes a Page from the Maybach Book of Opulence

Daimler may have finally given up on the second coming of Maybach, but that doesn’t mean it’s walked away from the chauffeur-driven über-luxury-sedan class. Its leading brand, Mercedes, has revealed interior-design details of the 2014 S-class—which we’ve spied completely undisguised—and its upcoming flagship will offer opulence not seen from any Daimler product since Maybach’s demise.

Eyeballs first will be drawn to the sweeping dashboard that flows into the door-trim panels. This creates an organic wraparound look that’s punctuated by a pair of high-res 12-inch screens filling the gauge cluster and center stack, handling instrumentation, infotainment, and climate-control duties. Benz says that this layout makes the dash appear as though it’s floating within the cabin—that’s further heightened by the “Corona Effect” ambient lighting that runs underneath the entirety of the wraparound dash.

Let’s Get Diagonal

While the front part of the cabin provide the visual candy, Benz has reserved its biggest guns for the back seat. There are five different rear-seat options, including the Executive option that allows the car’s aft occupants to recline up to what Mercedes claims is an industry-leading 43.5 degrees for relaxing or snoozing between power meetings. (We expect such lounging won’t be available in the upcoming coupe and cabriolet cariants.) Suitably reclined, Executive seat dwellers also can deploy a hot-stone energizing massage—well, not real hot stones, but simulated ones—with 14 separate, moving air cushions pulsing to the beat of six different selectable programs, two of them with added heat. Kneads fulfilled, the seat’s active ventilation system can either blow or exhaust air to or from the seat occupant’s nether region for enhanced comfort. Not only are the seats and steering wheel heated, but so are the armrests on the doors and center console.

According to Mercedes, the new S-class has more than 100 actuators or electric motors in the cabin to attend to the occupants’ “needs.” Some have safety implications, as well, such as a belt-buckle feeder that electrically lowers or raises a buckle into position. Airbags continue to propagate in the S-class, with inflatable beltbags to cushion the ribcage in a frontal collision, as well as cushionbags to prevent diagonally reclining passengers from submarining under the belt in a crash. (A full rundown of the latest tech to be found in the upcoming S can be found here.)

Smell of Success 

In the new S-class, an air-balance package ionizes the air to rid it of viruses, spores, and bacteria, and concentrates negatively charged oxygen ions for what Mercedes claims is a relaxing effect. If that doesn’t quite do the job on really polluted days, the Mercedes Active Perfuming System (claimed to be a world first) can be adjusted to dispense pleasant olfactory stimulation into the cabin. No word yet on what scents are available or how they are delivered, but this does eliminate the need to hang a forever-fashionable pine-tree air freshener from the rearview mirror.