In Europe, “Mercedes-Benz” is the shorthand for “beautiful taxi”, but North America has always considered it a high-end brand. Not as sporty as BMW, or as sporty as Audi’s state symbols, but quiet, quiet confidence, indicating a certain level of wealth and good taste. That said, most of the Mercedes you see these days or so are giant SUVs or Boxy G63S (also known as G-Wagon, which is also giant SUVs), which are very similar to armored vehicles. I found myself longing to enjoy casual luxury Mercedes sedans since I was a kid, so I took the opportunity to get into several new models lately.
First is the EQS 450 4matic sedan. You can guess from the “e” it’s an electric car, and although it consistently ranks at the bottom of its segment (like me), I actually like this little car. Like all electrical, it tear off the cold station faster than Lambo with a torque of 590 lb-ft. The 335 horsepower isn’t particularly special, but it’s a sleek 335. I drove the EQS 450 as much as I could for a week and when they showed up at my home to tighten from my cold, dead hands it was still 60% off.
Although it’s dreamy, the best aspect of the EQS 450 is its design. My friend said when showing him, “It looks like my corolla,” but he is certainly wrong about it – at least what I said. Mercedes has deployed a luxury line styling of a “one bow” on the car, which is both sleek and low and looks longer than the capacity of five passengers. The real advantage is the interior packaging of the DD2 “Manufaktur” (So Germandsing), with custom Nappa leather interior, soft rear pillows and star-shaped windows and doors. The car also contains 64-color ambient lighting, which is indeed on display when you cruise the city at night. It was Mercedes after dark, which was a real atmosphere. As some exciting ambient music develops, this makes me feel less rich. Given that all the special packaging cars cost $134,860, it’s better. This is not a taxi.
Next is its ice (this is your internal combustion engine) cousin, AMG CLE 53 Cabriolet. There are many differences between vehicles. As the name suggests, it’s a convertible and although I’ve had it once in the rainiest week in a decade, I haven’t fallen once. It also comes with an AMG signature, which means it’s track-ready.
This CLE 53 has a 3.0-liter Inline-6 Turbo engine that produces 443 horsepower and zero to six minutes in 4.0 seconds. It also includes a nine-speed automatic transmission that will rattle if you decide to operate it yourself with a paddle transmission. It’s not a smooth journey; Mercedes means its AMG produces rocket frames and has the same fuel burn. In the city, it’s only 19 miles per gallon and 26 miles on the highway. It has a completely opposite personality, such as equation 450.
There are several important notes on CLE 53: One night, I drove home along a passway that attracted many walkers. A woman deviated from the drainage ditch and walked into the street, vaguely but not directly into the car’s road. The car swayed so violently, with its own brake effort that it hit the seat belt into my sternum, leaving a V-shaped bruise, which took a week. On the one hand, it’s nice to know that cars contain advanced safety features. However, they don’t need to be deployed at that particular moment, which makes me wonder how reliable my Benz Robot Overlord is.
When driving, I prefer to use the GPS in my phone for orientation. But the CLE’s onboard computer feels jealous, so whenever the phone’s instructions are turned on, the dashboard turns red and the car repeats the instructions given to me by the phone, just like a naggy robot teenager in the back seat.
Then there was a weird moment at midnight on Sunday when the car started talking to me and was not banned. The monologue is so strange that I feel like I’m dreaming. So the next day I gave the car a tip, which more or less repeated itself:
“Mercedes,” I asked. “Can you tell me your abilities as an AI?”
“I’m here to help you find factual information, especially topics related to Mercedes-Benz. Although I can’t directly perform tasks such as navigation or controlling vehicle functions, I can help you find accurate information or do my best to help you.”
“What else can you do?” I said.
Then “she” repeated the weird monologue from the previous night.
“I can do things for you anytime, anywhere. For example, call someone, write a text message or play music. Because my heart is in it, I know everything about driving a vehicle. For example, you can tell me, ‘Hey Mercedes, drive me home.’ Or ask, “Hey Mercedes, is there a crowd on my route? ”You can also tell me if your goal is too hot or cold, or if your goal is to evolve so that you can give you the best support.
The question is that AI is actually evolving, and in the days of Grok 4, Heaven knows who programmed this “intellectual” to Mercedes and when. This is not that kind of car company except Tesla, so I was very skeptical of my companions on the ship, and he felt Very HAL9000.
The CLE 53 Cabriolet I drove retails for $90,370. I’m willing to spend thousands of dollars mechanically eliminating its “smart” brain. My life may depend on it.
