Mercedes-Benz design chief Gorden Wagener at the EQS ‘Hyperscreen:’ Bigger the better ‘

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Mercedes-Benz announced the Hyperscreen, a massive one-piece infotainment screen that will be available in the near future EQS electric luxury sedan. Daimler’s chief designer Gorden Wagener spoke to reporters in a virtual roundtable to explain more about the Hyperscreen and how it became a reality.

Wagener says the idea for the Hyperscreen first came about years ago, and it all started with a sketch on the wall in Mercedes’ now-emerging interior design studio in Como, Italy. (Mercedes has since opened a new design studio in Côte d’Azur, France. Nice work if you can get it.) “I saw the sketch and said, ‘This is great, let’s make it happen,'” he says. Wagener. “And we did make it happen! We made it achievable with a partner, and it really amazes me. We have a vision, a little sketch there, and we made it a reality.”

The Hyperscreen covers a total of 56 inches, the full dashboard, and it has approximately 377 square inches of screen. These are technically three separate screens under one glass panel, all of which are OLED units with a super high resolution, but the transition from screen to empty glass seems seamless. “The bigger the better,” Wagener says.

Equipped with the Hyperscreen, the only physical control panel on the EQS’s dashboard is the start button and light switch, and Wagener says this is not something Mercedes will respond to. more buttons and switches five years back. “We insisted on eliminating hard keys because it makes it clean and modern,” he says. “It’s a whole different thing to work with. As designers, we like simplicity.”

The hyperscreen is optional, and the EQS gets a similar setup as the 2021 S-Class standard that has a standalone monitor and a separate information screen in the bar. Wagener does not give as many details about the base system, but he says that the EQS was designed with the hyperscreen in mind. “We started with the Hyperscreen, that was the focus,” says Wagener. “We always have one eye on the standard version, but we did not want to jeopardize the high version.”

The D-Class dash (and apparently the base EQS) is dominated by a large slightly curved finish panel, available in a multitude of wood, carbon fiber, aluminum and piano black finishes. Fancy trim is a hallmark of any luxury car, so I ask Wagener how the Hyperscreen-equipped EQS will compensate for the lack of the panel. “If the entire instrument panel is screen, you have less space for traditional finishing materials, but the Hyperscreen itself is the jewel of the interior,” he says. “It’s glossy, it has a mega resolution, it’s sexy and simple. When viewed in size and brightness, it’s so much prettier than any decoration material would do.”

There will still be fine finishes, such as chrome strips around the screen and pieces of wood on the center console and dashboard, but Wagener says, “We’re moving away from traditional finishes to digital finishes” when it comes to Mercedes’ electric cars. The passenger side of the Hyperscreen can display animated patterns or image galleries, actually making it a virtual piece. “Once you use it and can animate it, put up photos of your loved ones, it’s so much more valuable and rich and luxurious than you’re used to.” Wagener also pointed to the analog air openers powered by the driver, which he described as a ‘hyperanalog’.

The Hyperscreen is the type of innovation that designers dream of, things typically reserved for concept cars, and Wagener has not said a word about how excited he is about it. “We will always put beauty first, we will never do an awkward solution. I am so glad I can not even believe that this design vision has become a reality.”