Mercedes Design Boss Comes Out Against Screens, Says They’re ‘Not Luxury’

Mercedes-Benz design chief Gorden Wagener has confessed that massive screens aren’t much of a luxury now that practically every vehicle offers them as standard equipment.

Speaking with ABC News about how Mercedes-Benz is involved in the luxury real estate market, Wagener stated that cars were becoming more like “smart homes” due to the advancement of autonomous driving. However, he added that it has been difficult to convert into a sound business model due to the massive technological investments required.

He likewise discussed how lucrative customization has been for the brand, concluding that bespoke automobiles was a growing business. However, he was much less enthusiastic regarding the prospect of giant screens after being questioned about the company’s current interior design choices on models like the deeply unpopular EQS.

“We don't have the hyperscreen in all the cars right now, just in a few,” said Wagener. “From the hardware side it's very good. From the software side it hasn't been that good. Because when you have a big screen, you want to have great content on it. So we're working on content that is more specific and more entertaining.”

“Screens are not luxury. You have a better — and bigger — TV at home, right? And every car has a big screen. So we have to create luxury beyond the screen. That's why I talk about craftsmanship and sophistication. There's so much emphasis on making [Mercedes] vehicles better.”

The design chief also went into discussing how the consumer perception of EVs has been the real problem in his purview. The customer sees it like an electronic device,” he elaborated. “Combustion cars are still being perceived like a Chrono watch — much more long-lasting.”

Wagener is obviously correct. Despite brands like Mercedes-Benz having previously installed screens into their vehicle specifically to impress would-be buyers, the industry now leans heavily upon them because they’re cheaper to implement than traditional buttons and knobs.

Furthermore, industry shifts in automotive design has made cars more tech heavy and not in ways that are universally appealing. Modern automobiles are more prone toward bothering the driver with start-up disclaimers, unnecessary warning chimes, drop-down menus, and features that are supposed to improve safety but often just create new headaches. The concept of having a smartphone on wheels held some appeal when that technology was novel. But customers have learned that the premise isn’t really offering them a better experience than what they could have gotten a decade or two earlier.

The one big exception has been the implementation of advanced driving aids designed to offer hands-free motoring. But the relevant features require even more invasive technologies to function and drive-by-wire controls that sap a vehicle of its personality. There’s nothing luxurious about having a car that’s annoying to interact with and less enjoyable to pilot.

However, the odds of screens simply evaporating overnight are presumably quite low. Screens are helping automakers save money when it comes to building vehicle interiors, allow for additional revenue streams, and are still broadly appreciated as luxury items in a couple of big markets — particularly China.

Wagener presumably wasn’t discussing doing away with big screens and going back to the old way of doing things. Instead, it seems as though he sees Mercedes as developing something that makes the screen more dazzling and improving other components of the vehicle to make it feel premium — hence the “craftsmanship and sophistication” remark.

The problem with this is that modern vehicles all feel more similar than they used to when they were all more mechanical in nature. The very notion of craftsmanship is arguably at odds with how modern vehicles are designed.

Let’s return to Wagener’s watch analogy. Your author loves a Casio wristwatch because it’s a cheap and functional tool. But it will never be more than that because it wasn’t constructed with the same care as a mechanical timepiece that was designed to be serviced and maintained. Automakers are currently selling the vehicular equivalent of a Casio G-Shock at Omega prices. Worse yet, consumers still remember that it was absolutely possible to purchase a well-built, mechanical automobile for a reasonable sum of money not that long ago.

The big question is where the industry goes from here. With drivers seemingly disinterested with many of the features currently being sold as luxurious, higher-end automakers may attempt to pivot back toward more-mechanical vehicles and claim it to be the latest form of opulence. But it’s hard to envision how that will interact with their current business model of profiting off driver data via vehicular connectivity, saving money through minimalist interiors by using touchscreens, and software-defined vehicles that are controlled almost entirely by electronics. The issue probably isn’t so much the screens themselves but the broader design ethos that accompanies them.

[Images: Mercedes-Benz]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by  subscribing to our newsletter.