Good find.

 

I bought the c43 because it was a six....AWD, and the engine was oriented in the correct direction....I won't want a four...if the inline six was offered, OK...oh well, I guess I still have a few good years of C43 hammering to do.....and then maybe something fast and maybe electric...

 

The Mercedes EQS is amazing. I'm thinking of going for that when the lease for my C43 is up.

 

I kind of understand why you want to, you are probably thinking either go 0-cylinders or at least V6 or mostly V8. You want the full benefit of the electric vehicle or the full benefit of an ICE vehicle. I understand hybrids are heavy and it is not necessarily the best of both worlds because when you want to drive purely electric, you have the weight of an internal combustion engine and when you want to drive only with the ICE, you have the weight of the batteries and motor. You want the instant torque of electric vehicles and for those who live in a house, charging is more convenient compared to going to a gas station.
To be honest, I kind of have a similar thought as well. Although I personally will keep my C43 for a little longer, still excited to see what W206 brings either way.

 

For sure, those were the selling points for me as well, I personally don't need the V8 but I need AWD thanks to lengthy winters (I could had went with a GLC 63 but I don't need a SUV) and V6 was just right for me, it sounds good and the power is enough for my needs and don't have to worry about being in a C63 that constantly tries to kill me. A four cylinder powered car just doesn't cut it for me, although I will reserve my judgement until I get to test drive a A/CLA 45 whenever things go back to normal. Enjoy your C43.

 

Definitely, but more importantly, have you seen the interior of the EQS? My goodness.

 

I certainly did and I too really like it, those who like tech will certainly appreciate those screens. I am worried about the glare under the sun though, hopefully it doesn't blind the driver. The rest of the interior is just as good as the new S-Class. Other than that, the EQS is certainly the benchmark of this class. I wonder what Mercedes will call their C-Class EQ vehicle (which it won't come until the end of the W206 gen I think I heard...) since the EQC moniker is taken by their GLC based fully-electric vehicle.
Edit: hmmm I didn't know the hyper screen is optional, looks like you get the regular S-Class display standard?

 

I have never been a fan of full screen controls, instead of a combination. If there's an issue with the screen, you lose access to everything. Not to mention, you have to take your eyes off the road to adjust anything. With physical dials and buttons, you can feel your way to the right one.

 

Fair point, those are legitimate reasons. Technology aren't perfect, our phones sometimes freeze too, our computers sometimes freeze too and we won't be able to power cycle our cars when we are on the highway, hopefully the systems controlling the infotainment isn't controlling our gauges because then we will have no instruments on the highway which can be pretty dangerous (thankfully, I am almost certain MB do have those separated) . I also prefer the simplicity of physical controls, especially for the climate control. If I have to choose between capacitive touch buttons on the steering wheel from the fl E-Class over physical buttons, I would definitely prefer physical buttons, it just works and it is straightforward. However, if I can only choose between capacitive touch buttons (which can arguably considered as "mini screens") over just a screen, I would go with the former. At least, the capacitive touch buttons are separated from the rest of the controls compared to just a screen displaying a bunch of icons depicting a function. Another thing is, if Mercedes can perfect their voice control/voice assistant (I think it was called LINGUATRONIC prior to mbux, and called mbux voice assistant for mbux), it might be more convenient to use while driving (until then, we still will hear the "Sorry, could you please repeat that please" or "Sorry, I can't help with that at the moment". MBUX also learns the driver's habits and can adapt to temperature changes, I think we can pre-program what the temperature will be at certain times of the day, certain days of the week just kind of like how we program a thermostat. Our future looks good so far...

 

I feel the same way when ever I'm in a Tesla. However, the massive screen in the EQS just looks so nice...

 

Tesla is an extreme case, specifically the models with only a single screen. They have centralized much of the functions which some analysts view as an advantage as it makes it easier to deliver updates, but yes if that single screen goes out, you have nothing. One of my business partners bought a Model 3 and his Infotainment computer was on the fritz from the beginning. It crashed during the walkthrough when he took delivery and then crashed again on his drive home. All went dark and he didn't even know how fast he was driving. I'm not sure how something like this even gets past regulators. The Germans architect their cars with a couple of 100 ECUs that are all linked together via the CAN bus and handle individual functions/subsystems. The instrument cluster is its own subsystem from the Infotainment system, so if one ECU fails it doesn't take down everything else with it. The Hyperscreen in the EQS is still several separate units behind the scenes so if one of the 3 screens goes out, the other 2 should still work. The problem with the German architecture is that it is extremely difficult to do OTA updates, also because each of these ECUs are farmed out to multiple suppliers and each one is using their own software architecture. That's where Tesla has an edge, because they developed their own OS that runs the car. They still have a few redundant and separate ECUs. For example all the driving functions are handled by a different ECU, than the screen and Infotainment system and they are linked together by a CAN bus. All the German car manufacturers are working on their own Car OS. Daimler/Mercedes has partnered with Nvidia to develop an OS that standardizes all these different subsystems together. We'll see what the future architecture will look like. I'm guessing they are moving to the Tesla model with more functions being centralized in fewer ECUs.

 

Hmmm, that brings up a curious question, do all these computers talk to each other? If so, if one fails and crashes that are supposed to provide sensor data or other sorts of data that the other computers rely on, what do you think will happen, is there supposed to be a backup system, like for (a relatively poor example) like a power generator during a power outage? If such backup system doesn't exist, those computers that rely on crucial data, do they just shut off certain functions like for (another poor example) when sensors are dirty and it shuts down DISTRONIC or does it have "Plan B" ? I understand the reason to the many computers because it is just plain dangerous if there is only one computer controlling the whole car when driving, that way if it fails you lose power steering, the engine can't communicate with the transmission, you can't provide driver input whatsoever as the car doesn't know how to respond since the "brain" is shutdown.

 

They don't all talk to each other, but yes there are ECUs responsible for gathering certain data that is then published on the CAN bus for other ECUs and critical systems have redundancies. For example the ABS ECU publishes wheel speed information which is ultimately used by many other ECUs. It's used by the instrument cluster to show your speed. It's used by the ESP system and other systems. So yes if the ABS ECU goes down it can affect other systems. Typically you'll end up with several error codes from various ECUs that are failing because the one supplying a necessary piece of information died. That can make diagnostics difficult, but generally the other ECUs don't completely fail. They may fall back to a limp mode to still keep the car going, but certain features won't be available.

 

I would imagine that the screens are just screens, the actual brain behind it are already in modern cars. Modern cars already have multiple ECUs talking to one another don't they? The screen is just an interface. However, I get that having 4 windows up/down buttons and 4 door lock/unlock buttons are "safer" in that if 1 screen is controlling all of those things, then if the screen malfunctions, you lose the ability to interact with these functions, albeit these functions may still be working properly but you just cannot interact with them with a broken screen.

 

Thanks for your answer superswiss, that answers my question fully, thank you.