Mercedes Splitview — a system allowing for simultaneous navigation system data displayed to the driver while DVD video's displayed to the passenger on the front seat LCD screen — is finally arriving as an option on US-spec S-class luxobarges.
As this video demonstrates, Splitview isn't intended to allow drivers to satisfy their compulsive need for 24-hour CNBC viewing while permitting their wives to simultaneously indulge their addiction to the San Diego Zoo Pandacam, but rather to permit the single dash-mounted screen to serve information to the driver and entertainment to front seat passengers.
Developed by Bosch, the 8-inch TFT-LCD display will display two separate images simultaneously by placing the pixels adjacent to one another and using a filtering mask to separate them for viewing.
No official price has yet been set for Splitview, but expect it to come in under $1,000. Availability begins in January.
Here's the press release:
On display at the L.A. Auto Show is an S400 HYBRID equipped with SPLITVIEW – a single display screen that allows the driver and front passenger to view two different programs at the same time. For example, the driver can view the navigation system, while on the very same display screen, the front passenger watches a movie.
An eight-inch COMAND display in the center of the dash features a backlit active-matrix TFT-LCD screen. Two sets of pixels can be displayed, and a mask on the screen filters out one set or the other, based on viewing angle. Depending on seating position, the driver views vehicle information, while the front passenger can watch something entirely different. Headphones for the passenger ensure the driver isn't distracted by a movie soundtrack. Later this year, S-Class sedans and CL coupes will be available with SPLITVIEW.