From a Merc C Class to a 3 ?

[ℬête Noire]

As if normal interiors wouldn`t work just as well with lvl 5.

Ultimately you don't really have room for both the large screen AND a big mess of buttons, even if you were inclined to put in a bunch of extra effort to backward compatibility those physical buttons into such a system.

Also most manufacturers can actually manage to adapt on the fly instead of nailing something down for "all eternity".

Not this fast. That's whole point, the iPhone/tablet design mentality that allows iteration in software.

Which company does major cabin redesign year-to-year? Tesla actually is unusually fast iteration in physic cabin design (eg already in gen 2 of the seats) already.

 

[Saimaannorppa]

I think the Model 3 interior is how it is because they really want to get out of the reds by having the biggest profit margin possible on the Model 3 and they get away with that because the performance of the drivetrain makes any ICE look ancient.
The autonomy argument for the overboarding simplicity however is just nonsense considering the state of the tech. Most initial model 3 owners will probably be on their next car or the one after the next before lvl 5 actually becomes available...(which i doubt will ever happen with the current sensor setup)

I would argue that the high tech MCU is in short term more expensive than wiring individual plastic buttons. Tesla will roll out new UI to the car as needed. Legacy makers will not recall their cars for a button reconfigure, or anything else (except VW...) and this makes other brands look ancient.

We don't need lvl 5 for having less stress on controlling the car. Current AP gives nicely time to play with settings if needed.