It’s a big weekend for posh battery-powered crossovers. BMW has already shown off the new electric iX3, and just days after being shown to the world, it’s going to meet its biggest rival. Mercedes-Benz is unveiling the electric GLC with EQ Technology crossover at IAA Munich this weekend, and it’s released a sneak peek of the cabin highlighting the presence of a screen bigger than my television.
We’re talking about a single display spanning nearly the entire dashboard, clocking in at 39.1 inches. Mercedes-Benz will proudly tell you that it’s the largest infotainment screen it’s ever put in a car, and it’s hard to deny that this setup is, as the Brits say, chuffing massive.
On it, you’ll find the same sort of MB.OS software seen in the new CLA, which means that all of your climate controls beyond temperature and defrost are buried in a sub-menu, and that ChatGPT-4o is on board in case you want to try breaking a chatbot by asking it to translate the script of “The Bee Movie” into Aramaic, then into Cantonese, then into Hungarian, then into Latin, and then back into English, then read it back to you.
Alright, admittedly, there are some good things going on here. Firstly, having everything be one big screen is far more sophisticated than laying three screens under one sheet of glass. Secondly, there doesn’t appear to be a giant bead of ambient lighting running across the top of the dashboard, which should be a bare-minimum thing but you never know with Mercedes these days. Third, those center HVAC vents are quite good, yeah? Squared-off and fluted like minute markers on a watch dial, there’s something chic going on that elevates them above MB’s more commonly used illuminated bunghole HVAC vents.
However, the biggest deal with the cabin of the new Mercedes-Benz GLC with EQ Technology isn’t the ridiculous display or the new air vents, or even four proper window switches unlike the new CLA. Instead, I’m most excited about this cabin addressing a major pet peeve of Mercedes-Benz interiors. See what’s on the steering wheel? A proper scroll wheel for audio volume, and there’s one in the console too. That shouldn’t be a big deal, but for anyone who’s spent time in a Mercedes-Benz with the current version of MBUX, it is.
That’s because if you hop in a C-Class or GLC or E-Class, you won’t just find that all the steering wheel controls are capacitive touch, you’ll also find a capacitive touch slider for audio volume on the console that just doesn’t operate with precision. The quick, short sort of slide that should bring the volume up from near-zero to a modest amount results in your neighbors listening to Future too, and that’s just not a good look.
So, welcome back, physical volume controls. Cadillac brought them back years ago, Volkswagen’s just brought them back, and now it’s time that Mercedes-Benz brought them back. Anyway, expect to see the rest of the GLC with EQ Technology, an electric compact luxury crossover with a naming scheme like a home stereo, to debut on Sunday.
Top graphic image: Mercedes-Benz
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
The post Mercedes Is Leaning Even More Into Screens, But I Don’t Care Because They Brought The Volume Knob Back appeared first on The Autopian.
