What I'm driving: Mercedes-Benz EQS

Few cars are as plush and technologically advanced as Mercedes-Benz's flagship S-class sedan, and those traits also define its electric counterpart, the EQS sedan.

The big picture: Introduced in 2021, the EQS was Mercedes' first luxury EV, and it continues to carry the banner for the German carmaker's growing portfolio of electric vehicles.

What's new: For 2025, the EQS Sedan gets a larger battery (118 kWh, up from 108 kWh), boosting the driving range to 390 miles.

• It also has a sleeker, more refined grille up front and cushier reclining seats for rear passengers.

Pricing starts at $104,400 for the EQS 450+ sedan and goes up to $147,550 for the high-performance AMG version.

• I drove the $107,400 all-wheel-drive EQS 450 4Matic. With added tech and trim features, the total sticker price came to $115,360.

Tech features abound, as you'd expect in a top-of-the-line Mercedes, including a fingerprint scanner to activate individual driver profiles, a voice-command system and augmented-reality navigation in the head-up display.

• The car's centerpiece is the MBUX Hyperscreen, a stunning curved screen across the entire width of the car, merging three displays into one.

The hands-free advanced driver-assistance system took me by surprise the first time I tried it on I-94 in Detroit.

• I set the adaptive cruise control speed and took my hands off the wheel, and it suddenly initiated an automatic lane change that I hadn't intended.
• It turns out automatic lane change is a sub-feature that was switched on in the car's multi-media system without my knowledge.

💭 My thought bubble: More and more cars now come with this kind of ADAS technology, but it's disconcerting when the car behaves in ways you don't expect.

I test-drive vehicles in my role as a juror for the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards. Opinions are my own.