Mercedes-Benz unveils its 56-inch ‘Hyperscreen’ display | Hacker News Reader

Mercedes-Benz unveils its 56-inch ‘Hyperscreen’ display

theverge.com

20 pointsdoener21 comments

And here I am moving from a Tesla back to a Toyota and feeling.... relieved.

Still feeling a little sad. But there’s just something ultra comforting about tactile buttons that each do a single thing and not even a hint of unnecessary complexity masquerading as “clean” or “modern”.

It's good ergonomics and safety. Not needing to look at the screen and fingers is just better.

Overdoing touchscreens and blue lights in dashboards are ergonomic UI failures justified by fashion.

I happily sacrifice backup cameras/aux input/Bluetooth/etc. for a truck with pretty much all orange incandescents.

I’m in a similar boat - I’m looking at new cars but want zero screen nonsense and minimal bells and whistles. I would love to contribute to electric cars but all the ones I have test driven have unsafe dash UIs for something as simple as adjusting the cabin temperature. I have driven Audi SUVs for quite while because I have dogs and like to ski and play outside (and even those have had absurd UIs since the mid-2000s), but I may just end up with a late 90s Tacoma - easy to fix, decent all-wheel drive, super-safe and intuitive dash interfaces... the electronic UI future/present is hideous to me and inferior to physical knobs and buttons. Mazdas also look like a decent option.

In my opinion, BMW has found a decent solution here, there are still physical buttons for everything, but it also has a touch screen. That way while driving you can use the physical controls, and when stopped you can use the touch screen.

I just went and drove an X3 Hybrid based on your note - I actually quite liked the interface. The options are still a little overhwhelming, but it's far less invasive than most of the other cars I have been looking at.

Out of curiosity, did you ever try the voice commands in the Tesla? I'm used to these systems being garbage, but Tesla's is quite good. I've moved to using it entirely while driving, even using auto-pilot.

isn't it still faster to just move your hand and rotate the temperature knob than using a voice command "XXXX increase temperature by X degrees"? Using muscle memory feels to me like using the least resources while articulating a phrase utilizes more resources.

I'm sure it is faster to use your hand. But I'm not sure faster is the right metric. Safety is probably higher on my list, and I'd say voice commands are safer than taking your hand off the wheel for any reason.

Never assume that it's equally easy for anybody to use voice commands. Or that you won't ever catch a cold.

Just imagine that when you'll be at a certain age, mind control will be the thing you'll be told "but it's so much easier", even if you'll not be able to master it.

> Mercedes says the Hyperscreen will include something called “zero layers,” in which the user no longer has to scroll through a variety of sub-menus or give voice commands “as the most important applications are always available in a situational and contextual way at the top of the driver’s field of vision.”

Good. Menus suck when trying to change the temperature in a car's touchscreen compared to individual knobs.

Volvo's touchscreen has multi-touch, as you can use it to zoom (very poorly) in their (bad) map, but if the driver and passenger want to change their temperature at the same time, it'll close the other's menu, even though the two menus don't even touch the other half of the screen closest to the other person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLVSxXcTuE&t=188 has a little more information and shows the UI in more detail.

It's three separate OLED screens beneath one gorilla glass surface.

I can already see the amount of zeros on the end of those invoices on future work orders, German electronics are amazing when they work but have a tendency to fall in line with their planned obsolesce period, often just right after the warranty period. How they managed to do that is a total form of evil genius.

As more and more new cars are relying on these display screens to entirely operate the car its become clear that the money has skewed way harder on parts and labour (which was already high) and away from deliveries/sales since I left the Industry.

Personally, I want Cybertruck as its the first original design in ages (all other Teslas remind me like of crystal pepsi type marketing on design) but I already drive a Toyota hybrid and these screens put me off so much. I just want the option to go back to dials and buttons just so I know how to trouble-shoot things.

These things that are really computers with wheels but are now calling 'cars' will likely remain a total black box hidden behind a bunch of firmware walls that require proprietary software and code readers/tools, and an exclusivity on parts.

I'm so tired of the automotive Industry's, at large but specifically the German ones I worked on most professionally, attempts to maintain any relevance and have resorted to the captured market in such a disappointing way and seem to have given up on trying to innovate in engineering or design in any meaningful way: big screens? Really, that's the best you can do?

Why not a EV version of the AMG A Klass that can compete in price and range with a base model Model 3 all the way up to dual motor performance?

Hyundai is already working on that EV hothatch, too, now that they've refined their QC/QA issues this last decade and made the most of their alliance with LG.

Nissan is trying to bring AR into their cars as moves most of its lineup entirely toward EV.

Totally agree. After 25 years of Fords and Hondas my wife and i got our fist (and last) German cars. Getting ready to sell them now. Both have had numerous issues and are just out of warranty. I drive them on pins and needles waiting for something else to break before they are someone else’s problem.

I wonder if the UI will still take 2-3 seconds to respond though.

mbux responds pretty quickly for me, it's carplay that seems to be really fiddly for some reason.

Touchscreen controls in cars are still SUCH a bad idea...

Mercedes even equipped the new system with 24GB RAM that is probably more amount of RAM than 90% of laptops in the market today [1].

https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/07/mercedes-unveils-hyperscre...

Apparently someone spied[1] the new Ford CUV/wagon with a dash-wide display as well.

I prefer the old analog gauges and knobs. Touchscreens are gaudy.

[1] https://www.motortrend.com/news/2022-ford-fusion-active-cuv-...

I would love to buy a car with this if Mercedes had a reputation for something other than expensive looking cheap junk that fails at 5 years. It's a really cool display, but everything I've heard and experienced with BMW/Mercedes warns me this is a terrible idea unless you are looking to buy an endless money pit. Accidentally kick this thing or hit a bump wrong and you are going to need a $10,000 loan just to fix one part.

It looks dope but 9/10 it won't do multitouch right. Shit like that is why I can't wait for the Apple car. Asian reliability with Apple's design chops mmm mmm

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