Spicy take: hyperscreen is a fraud.

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Mercedes' latest and greatest interior innovation on the EQS and EQE is nothing but a sharply dressed suit over a company that can't figure out Tesla. On the surface, it's a masterpiece of futurism - smooth glass, flowing lines and a dashboard that appears to be one giant, gorgeous screen.

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But it's only the first two of those. In reality it's three separate screens made to look like one - the standard high-end Merc digital gauge panel, an oversized MBUX middle screen and a standard, likely repurposed MBUX from lesser models in front of the passenger.

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I feel like the damn Count from Sesame Street pointing all of these out. In short, it's nothing revolutionary or becoming of the world's oldest car manufacturer.

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What it absolutely IS, however, is a stylistic marvel. But it doesn't move the proverbial needle in terms of interior design. I've sat in several EQS' and the experience is more.....nice. It's nicer than an S-Class, nicer than a Model S, but it isn't light-years ahead. Sure, the graphics are super slick, the material quality is rock solid, and the UX is like riding a bike to use. But this feels like the tail-end of an era of interior design, not the start of the next revolution.

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See, when Tesla came out with it's portrait style tablet in the Model S, that was TRULY revolutionary. Suddenly everything could be controlled with the screen. There were easter eggs everywhere, and the graphics were gorgeous. I'm not talking gorgeous just for 2012, gorgeous for today still.

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It represented truly revolutionary interior design and technological progress. It set such a high bar for both screen size and the amount of features in a screen, that carmakers are still catching up - a decade later.

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So where was Mercedes in the early 2010s for interior design? Scroll wheels and embedded screens, that's what.

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With the Hyperscreen, Mercedes is telling the world that it will use it's engineering and design might to add more screens and make them look better on the dashboard. Throw in a gesture control or two, a fingerprint scanner, a screen for the passenger to play Tetris and.....bam. The future. Instead of rethinking the automotive cockpit, showing us what's possible and what's next, they're prettying up existing technology at a passing attempt to put themselves on the same level as Tesla.

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Granted, Tesla's small size allowed it to take risks and move more quickly. And yes quality has been a challenge, electronics can go out of control, and things break. But dammit, Mercedes spent so much on the EQS and it's interior, built it from scratch and still couldn't match the Model S for futurism. They're clearing banking on the prestige of the three-pointed star, and (increasingly questionable) reputation for quality to sell these giant jellybeans.

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Hell, Tesla is even regressing in terms of screen size and still looks like it's from another planet. Just look at that! It doesn't need screens everywhere to convey futurism, just minimalism.

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I'll leave the yoke discussion for another day, however.

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I don't profess to know what's next in terms of truly revolutionary interior designs. It will likely involve additional screen real estate, but surely we can do it in a way that changes the fundamentals of the game and better integrates them into the overall user experience of the cabin. Screen numbers for screen numbers sake aren't it, plain and simple.

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You even get the sense that Mercedes is aware of this facade by the angles it uses in its press photos for the EQS:

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When you see it from this angle, it looks like one big screen. The kind that Mercedes is TRYING to make the Hyperscreen seem to be. But really, it's Pyrex over three year old tech.

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Which makes me doubly excited for whatever Tesla comes out with next.