00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Today I'm going to walk you through the all-new Mercedes-Benz User Experience MBUX.
00:04 First debuted in the new A-Class and I'm going to give you a detailed review of it
00:08 with a couple of the functions that are specific to the new A45 S.
00:12 It all centres around these two 10.25-inch screens. We're going to focus on this one here.
00:17 It's a touchscreen, so you can use the touch functions to navigate through the screen
00:22 and then you can also set different themes as well if you want. So you can go from the fancy theme
00:28 to an old-school theme which changes everything including your gauges, but for me I like just
00:33 sticking with the standard themes. You can also then navigate the infotainment system down here.
00:37 You've got a touchpad which allows you to swipe left and right, allows you to click and also
00:42 right when you're putting in navigation destinations which I'll show you in a second.
00:45 You have shortcut buttons to the side. This top one here activates the 360 camera. That actually
00:49 works really well. It's a very detailed camera and it gives you a stack of different angles to
00:53 work with. So very intuitive system and a good implementation. If you've seen our other videos
00:57 before, I'll often complain about low quality 360 cameras. This is how they need to be done so you
01:02 can actually use them. You then have a shortcut button on the side for access to the car's
01:06 settings. Underneath that you have a favourites button. You can set up anything you want in here
01:09 and then every time you hit that you'll be able to quickly dive into those menus. And then finally
01:14 on the other side you have access to telephone, radio and maps as well. So let's jump into the
01:18 telephone menu. I'll show you what that looks like. So in the phone menu you can connect directly
01:22 via Bluetooth, then use voice recognition to give commands to the car or you can hook up Apple CarPlay.
01:28 It looks a bit nasty. So it's not a widescreen Apple CarPlay system by the looks of it. It's
01:33 sort of boxed into that window there. I guess it kind of gives them room for you to access
01:37 other functions but in some of the competitors in this segment including BMW it's actually
01:41 full widescreen. If we then jump back to the main menu you have your radio functions.
01:45 Now in here you can select FM, AM, DAB plus digital. It is an okay system. The only issue
01:51 I have is when you're looking for radio stations you kind of have to scroll through an infinite
01:56 amount of radio stations. It's not a really quick system. You do have access to a search function,
02:00 a bit hard to use while you're moving, and then also a list function. But again they're all big
02:05 icons and it means that when you're searching you have to flick through quite a lot of stations
02:09 before you can actually find what you're after. Now in terms of media connectivity you have USB-C
02:13 ports littered throughout the car. So that's the next generation of USB. You can get a converter
02:18 like the one that we're using here. You also have built-in media storage and the ability to stream
02:22 over Bluetooth and also internet streaming as well through your phone which is handy to have.
02:26 Now in the comfort menu this is where all the climate control functions are and also where you
02:30 can go through the energizing modes. Now the drive out to here was about an hour and a half and the
02:36 car prompted me to use the energizing comfort mode and when I pressed vitality it went through a 10
02:42 minute selection of nice music and also the ability for the seat to move around and make
02:47 it more comfortable for me. So that is a nice thing to have. And refresh which was interesting.
02:51 It would basically make it out like you're at sea and then start blowing cold air at you.
02:56 Ambient lighting you can select from up to 64 LED colors inside the cabin here. Everything
03:01 from standard hues through to mixes as well. Now specific to the AMG models it is optional on the
03:07 A35 AMG but standard on the A45 is track pace. It is effectively an ability for you to enter track
03:13 details into the car. Some are also pre-loaded and it gives you metrics from up to 60 or 80
03:18 different data points on the car and you can download that information to see how you're
03:22 doing as a driver. It'll collect everything from engine revs to braking performance. It really is
03:26 a useful tool to have if you do plan on attacking track days. Jump along there to the AMG performance
03:31 menu. This is where you're going to see a lot of data on the car. So the engine menu gives you the
03:36 power output, engine torque as well plus all your vital temperatures. You have a consumption menu,
03:40 who really cares? You've then got options for the vehicle and in here you also have a G meter which
03:45 you can get to display on the menu in front of you along with slip angles and what the suspension is
03:50 doing on each corner of the car. Now the individual configuration is pretty handy because if you want
03:55 to have the car loud but not have the suspension too firm you can simply set up the individual menu
04:00 to make the engine go into its dynamic mode but to keep the suspension in comfort mode and that's
04:04 what I've got it in at the moment. That way when you're driving you want to have a bit of fun you
04:07 can flick this along once it dials up individual mode and then away you go. The next function I
04:11 want to walk you through here is Mercedes me. Mercedes me is the Mercedes application. It's
04:17 installed on your telephone and if I open it up here it allows me to dial up information about
04:22 the car remotely start it, see the status of the car remotely locate it, send map information to
04:27 the car and it's very easy to set up. You log into the portal, put your VIN information in,
04:31 confirm it through the dealer. The other element of this system is the voice recognition system.
04:35 It actually works really well here. It's activated by saying "Hey Mercedes" but I've disabled that
04:40 because every time we say Mercedes during this video it tries to activate it. So I'm going to
04:43 push it here. Close the roller sun blind. I'm closing the roller sun blind. So you can see
04:50 that working there but the other cool function is you can change LED interior colors while you're
04:55 driving. Change the interior LED color to red. Could you repeat your input please? Change LED
05:03 color to red. Okay I'm changing the color. Look it generally works pretty well. Sometimes it won't
05:10 pick up your commands but it is a useful system to have especially if you need to put in navigation
05:14 addresses or call people with weird names. The navigation menu is a big step forward now as well
05:19 because it's a much faster system and much easier to use as well. So you can see here the processor
05:23 is super quick. You can see the traffic overlays on major roads as well. The input functions for
05:28 destinations are really clever now too. Over on the side here you can go straight to parking lots,
05:32 to meals and then if I click here you can type in destinations. You can write them in using the top
05:39 of the pad here but the interesting function I find here is the ability to say I'm hungry.
05:44 I'm hungry. Take me to a Chinese restaurant. So what it's doing now is looking up Chinese
05:51 restaurants nearby and if I want to go to Heathcote Palace Chinese restaurant all I do is
05:56 click that button up the top there. So it is a good integration of navigation into that voice
06:01 recognition system. Finally let's have a look at the settings menu. What I like here is that there
06:05 are graphical highlights for all the functions here. So as I scroll through these it changes the
06:10 overlay to tell me which setting I'm actually changing. So this is a clever feature because
06:14 sometimes you don't know what these symbols mean. If I jump over to the assistance menu it then goes
06:19 even further there and I like the fact that you can actually pick up some of the traffic signs
06:22 here as well. You can customize a lot of the safety systems built into this car and vary the
06:27 amount of intervention you're getting. So if you don't like the way that it tugs at the wheel when
06:30 you're leaving a lane or the way that it tries to to avoid leaving a lane when you don't want it to,
06:35 you can switch all of those systems off in a very intuitive way. And finally the good thing here as
06:40 well is the owner's manual. It's all a graphical representation so built into the car you can come
06:45 in and find all the functions and figure out what to do with them because there is so much to learn
06:49 here. So I'll give you a quick look at this if I go here to tips at the filling station refueling
06:54 the vehicle. It will give me a lot of warnings because it's German about refueling your vehicle
07:00 but then it also gives you quick start guides for things like adjusting the mirrors and other
07:04 critical functions to being able to hit the road and enjoy your new AMG. So that's been a detailed
07:09 look at MBUX. Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions or head to
07:14 carexpert.com.au for more content on this infotainment system.
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