The 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class officially debuted today in Germany. It has cameras that look at the road to control chassis settings and the promise of a lot of great tech. It speaks for itself. So to reveal it, Merc went understated with an arsenal of cars, an Airbus A380, Niki Lauda, and an Alicia Keys concert.
Mercedes will start selling the S-Class here in September, and when it goes on sale it'll have the first camera-assisted chassis. Cameras below the car will look at the road and adjust the ride quality accordingly.
It's pretty impressive, and Todd Lassa from Automobile was on the scene, and he live tweeted everything he saw.
Here's Dieter Zetsche, aka Dr. Z, discussing that camera technology with Alicia Keys, who was probably integrally involved in some way:
She's probably telling him about how she developed the diesel S300 BlueTEC Hybrid, which combines a four-cylinder diesel and an electric motor and isn't coming to America yet. What we are getting as our only choice to start is a twin-turbo 4.7 liter V8 with 449 horsepower and 516 pound feet of torque. I doubt they call it the S470 though. It'll be the S550 because that makes sense (naming scheme is currently displacement + 80).
Here's Alica Keys singing about "Intelligent Drive", "Efficient Technology" and "Essence of Luxury," which is the ethos that was put into the all new S-Class.
That's all well and good, you say, but how does an SLS AMG look next to an Airbus A380?
Right, but what about a whole fleet of Mercedes with an A380 and fireworks and shit? I got ya covered!
But what does former F1 champion Niki Lauda think of the car? Is he ok with no all-wheel drive being offered at launch? We don't know, because it seems he likes to take a considered approach and have a one-on-one conversation about the performance of the upcoming S65 AMG, which will have 621 horsepower.
He wasn't discussing the hot stone rear seat massage, which can apparently be controlled by a smart phone. He also wasn't talking about the scented fragrances that can be emitted from the climate control system.
In it's physical form, the press release for the S-Class is a mere 120 pages. That's Great Gatsby (Topical alert!) length. We've cut it down to just 102 pages, which you can read below if you so choose!
Still, the new S-Class looks incredible. I can't wait to get Alicia Keys and Niki Lauda to give me a deep tissue massage in an A380. That's what they were selling at the launch, right?