“The Mercedes GLE 450 is the best connected luxury mid-sized SUV based on our comprehensive assessment and methodology,” said Hakan Ekmen, umlaut’s US Managing Director. “Given the surging interest in connected and autonomous vehicles and critical importance of connectivity in vehicles, umlaut conducted a comprehensive connectivity assessment of these five luxury SUVs. The umlaut Connected Vehicles Benchmark is a first-of-its-kind report analyzing the features of connectivity - truly from the user’s perspective. Our scoring framework enables ‘apple to apple comparisons’ so that manufacturers know where they stand in each single category.”
“Best in Test” Methodology Key to Analyzing Performance to Determine the Most Connected SUV.
The umlaut assessment is largely based on the availability of features, which contributes a maximum of 700 points to the total maximum score of 1000 points. The Feature Availability test consisted of three categories: Infotainment, Navigation and Connectivity. The remaining maximum of 300 points was awarded for the UX score, which is composed of the aspects Feature Performance (max. 240 points) and Feature Experience (max. 60 points). The determination consists of a total of 60 test cases from categories such as App/Smartphone, Navigation, Entertainment, Communication, Voice Control, Comfort, Productivity and Extras.
umlaut has a proven track record of performing benchmarking activities as a leader in the automotive industry and the de facto industry standard in telecommunications using its technical expertise through an in-field and research-driven approach.
The full study of the 2021 umlaut Connected Vehicles Benchmark including a detailed description of the underlying “Best in Test” methodology can be downloaded below: