The all-new Mercedes-Benz VLE is a luxurious all-electric minivan unlike anything we’ve ever seen in a North American dealership. While other manufacturers have cut minivans from the lineup recently, and with VW’s ID. Buzz failing to connect in the US, Mercedes is throwing its hat in the ring. On first impressions alone, the VLE feels like a car that was never meant to be sold Stateside.

Well, at least at first, it wasn’t meant to be sold anywhere. That’s because what became the VLE started off not as a platform built for Europe, but as the Vision V concept car revealed in April of last year. Even as early as 2023, Mercedes-Benz touted their upcoming VAN.EA platform as the future of the electric van segment. In concept form, the Vision V sported an LED-backlit faux front grille and giant saucers of 24-inch wheels. It also packed a massive 65-inch front screen and a staggering 42 speakers in its premium audio unit, as if to make the Cadillac Escalade IQ feel bad about itself.

Right off the bat, the production-spec VLE maintains the Vision V’s bold styling and sleek, whale-like proportions. The front grille arrangement is markedly different, attempting to look far more like an ICE front clip than the concept vehicle that inspired it. At the back, the VLE shares the Vision V’s tall, squared-off rear-end with a visibly low loading floor. It does lead to the effect of the long rear hatch acting like a canopy of sorts, which might lead to headaches in tight parking spaces. But the prospects of a van this easy to lug cargo into can only be a positive.

With dimensions of 17.3 feet (5.3 m) long and 6.5 feet (2 m) wide, this makes the anything-but-small Chrysler Pacifica and Toyota Sienna look slim. Even the Kia Carnival, the largest conventional minivan sold in the US, is somewhat dwarfed by this big, German leviathan. Beneath the skin, the underlying VAN.EA skateboard platform uses an 800-volt architecture in line with other expensive luxury EVs.

MB touts 115 kWh of usable battery charge at hand, with the VLE’s range exceeding 700 kilometers or north of 430 miles. This puts it in the same league as other flagship electric luxo-barges like the Cadillac Escalade IQ and Lucid Gravity Grand Touring. With variables like the weather and driving habits accounted for, the three are likely within the margins range-wise. Elsewhere, VLE’s electric motor suite delivers a maximum of 409 horsepower, so it’s not exactly Plaid-fast.

Still, a zero-to-60 mph sprint of 6.5 seconds is roughly as fast as the equivalent Carnival, Odyssey, or whatever you have. For a van that must weigh upwards of 6,000 lbs and even more fully-loaded, that’s not too shabby at all. Not that performance is at all the target focus of this machine. Rather, it’s a level of luxury you just don’t see in US minivans. To its credit, the VLE can regain 355 kilometers or 220.5 miles in just 15 minutes at level 3 DC fast-charging stations.

Want to talk about screen overload? The VLE practices radical acceptance of the trend with a three-piece front gauge cluster and infotainment suite. Using three panels of high-fidelity capacitive glass divided into bespoke sections across the dashboard, the result is one of the more impressive front screen setups around. The driver’s gauge cluster glass is a healthy 10.25 inches, with 14-inch panels the rest of the way across.

This arrangement is similar to other wall-to-wall front screens from other companies like Cadillac and Lincoln. It also mirrors MB’s own arrangement on their current electric flagship SUV, the EQS. In the back, the MBUX Rear Space Experience is perhaps the VLE’s flagship feature. Much like similar setups in rivals from BMW, the Rear Space Experience features a deployable 31.3-inch panoramic 8K screen with integrated streaming video and gaming capability.

It’s all accessible through the MB. OS infotainment software suite touted as one of the better systems on the market. The obligatory acres of leather and LED mood lighting is all where it needs to be. All in all, it’s a remarkably refined interior. One that makes other high-end minivans like the Sienna Platinum and Carnival SX Prestige feel spartan by comparison. All the while, seating for up to eight with an optional middle-row bench seat makes the VLE exceptionally practical.

Far beyond just looking like a Euro or even JDM-spec vehicle, the all-new VLE is practically in a class of its own by virtue of its unique configuration. Is it built for suburban families who want something “more” out of their minivans, or for people who drive things like Rivian R1s and Escalade IQs instead? It’s a case quite unlike any seen in the North American market since the minivan arrived in the mid 1980s. Will it find its niche? Or, has MB made a considerable effort bringing a Euro-optimized electric minivan to the US for no real payoff?

As of now, the answer remains to be seen. In truth, MB’s decision to bring the VLE to the US is a head scratcher. But it’s all the more reason to be thankful they did. More variety is typically always better, even with things as mundane as minivans.

There's one company the US Military trusts more than any other to supply microdisplay interfaces to its active-duty personnel. Believe it or not, it's not LG, Epson, or even Samsung or Sony. Instead, it's an American firm that not many outside the defense sector are familiar with, called Kopin. As I was about to discover, Kopin's range of microdisplays goes far beyond military applications. If you need surgery, one of Kopin's microdisplays might even help save your life.

An American Microdisplay Titan

Inside a conference room in a swanky hotel in Times Square, Kopin took an hour out of their day to show Cars Travel Tech their latest multi-use microdisplay technology. Using a handy demonstration board filled with model microdisplays, Kopin flexed just how vast their production capabilities are. From legacy formats like VGA and LCD to cutting-edge OLED and proprietary MicroLED displays, it's all scaled to fit devices like heads-up display goggles or eye movement sensors.

With microdisplay fabrication facilities in Reston, Virginia, and Dalgety Bay in Scotland, the Massachusetts-headquartered company ships hardware to every continent on Earth. Right in front of us here in New York, some of the best Kopin microdisplay technology was sitting right there.

In military applications, Kopin microdisplays can mean the difference between mission success and mission failure. By identifying friendlies, weeding out hostiles, and judging their distances from the operator, Kopin microdisplays transform standard-issue optics hardware into smart devices in every sense.

Top-Shelf Military AR In the Dark

Take the Kopin Darkwave, a clip-in device that brings every mission parameter imaginable to everyday military low-light optics without modifying the supporting device at all. In close combat, where situational awareness is paramount, the Kopin Darkwave's AR capability is an extra edge, providing a layer of awareness and, therefore, a layer of safety that no fighting force prior to the late-2010s had ever been afforded. But even by the standards of a decade's research in military-spec AR hardware, the Darkwave is a cut above.

For starters, Darkwave's full color overlay capability enhances night vision detection and is nothing short of top-shelf. In demonstrations that allowed us to view a Darkwave clip-in with night vision goggles, we experienced head tracking capability and saw symbology with a see-through augmented reality overlay. We also saw a separate thermal unit, which could detect the faintest thermal trace of someone's hand leaning on a padded wall. With the lights all the way off and the room around devoid of light, we could still see the remaining thermal print long after our Kopin rep removed his hand from the wall. In the future, Kopin could possibly aim to add this thermal feature to the DarkWAVE. Even if you're not a military contractor, it's not hard to see the practical upsides of such an advanced system.

All manner of different metrics can be toggled and configured to the precise needs of individual missions and can be modified via over-the-air updates if parameters change. In so many ways, Darkwave's AR capability makes allied fighting forces worldwide eager for its adoption. But when paired with off-the-shelf goggles with a very sensitive low-light sensor array, the pair can't operate outside of very low-light environments.

In the Daytime As Well

That's where DAYVAS, its daytime-readable counterpart, comes in. Using a similar clip-on form factor to the Darkwave, DAYVAS provides the same data-link juggernaut capability that makes a difference in combat during the day. Far beyond your average civilian-grade set of AR goggles, DAYVAS's powerful microdisplay delivers a degree of fidelity beyond anything Meta or HTC offers at the moment. Better still, it's adaptable to essentially all helmet sizes and form factors that the US Military currently offers. From assisting main battle tank drivers and fifth-gen stealth fighter pilots, to doctors and surgeons, Kopin Technologies, loosely based around a similar architecture, covers the full gamut of combat-based AR applications.

Controlling Drones With Your Eyes

But even beyond AR, Kopin's state-of-the-art sensor array technology is now being fielded via a device that can control drones with eye movement alone. Via the groundbreaking NeuralDisplay prototype, this AI-powered microdisplay can track the movement of the wearer's pupils and apply it to real-life movements of autonomously operated systems. Like the clever head movement-operated IHADSS system applied to modern US Army attack helicopters' main machine guns, the NeuralDisplay could bring similar functionality to drone operation.

Unlike other systems that track general head movement, tracking the precise movement of the eye and making micro-adjustments to a drone's flight path is immensely impactful for allied fighting forces. Via the lowest-latency data streaming currently available, any combat device equipped with the NeuralDisplay headset has a distinct edge when under heavy enemy fire. Without the need for heavy eye-tracking cameras, NeuralDisplay is not much bulkier than the average pair of sporty sunglasses. When you're wearing the device for hours at a time, these little things really do matter.

Your Doctor’s New Best Friend

But what about applications beyond the military, beyond combat? How can Kopin's finest microdisplays be applied to a civilian sector of the utmost importance? Through the HMDmd CR3 wearable monitor purpose-built for surgery, surgeons and doctors of all stripes have access to the highest-fidelity, lowest-latency video feeds currently possible during minimally invasive procedures. By melding the realms of virtual reality and augmented reality and using aspects of both, attending physicians have higher-fidelity views of sensitive human tissue under the knife than ever before.

Better still, HMDmd CR3 can receive real-time updates on pressing medical information streamed right to the glasses without once putting the scalpel down. For physicians conducting robotic procedures via robot-operated surgical instruments, HMDmd CR3 is a line of defense against human error in critical situations where the difference between life and death can be a matter of millimeters. Even during mundane tasks like diagnostics, the potential to cover blind spots for very human doctors using real-time data links gives the best possible opportunity for an optimal outcome.

From a sea of military-centric microdisplay technology, HMDmd CR3 proves that very similar hardware is easily adaptable to be used for the greater good. In a consumer space where VR capability usually starts and ends with the HTC Vive and Oculus Quest, Kopin's application of similar tech scaled up for professional applications shows us where the consumer space will be in just a few years' time. In the meantime, such technology is better suited for professional applications. But just you wait, time has a way of making high-end tech trickle down to the mainstream.

If you want to upset an Italian, you may want to invite them to dinner. There you can dish out all kinds of culinary torture techniques that will leave your guest in tears. Squirt some ketchup on your spaghetti, drop some ice in your red wine, don’t forget to pick the toppings off your pizza and leave the base!

Oddly enough though, one of the biggest Italian food and drink faux pas is a bit less obnoxious. In fact, it’s a cultural norm in many other parts of the world. It involves putting milk in coffee.

Saying milk and coffee don’t go together may sound a bit odd when we’re talking about the country that pioneered the cappuccino. But as with many things in life it’s all about timing.

Milky Coffee is a Morning Thing

Italian coffee culture is pretty distinct, and one of its core tenants involves when you can add milk to a coffee. That’s a breakfast thing. Like a bowl of cereal. There are all types of tales circulating about why this is, with many claiming milk will “interfere with digestion” when combined with meals later in the day. But whatever the reasoning, it’s a set cultural precedent in many parts of Italy.

So can you actually order a cappuccino after noon? Of course you can, and most places will serve it to you. Though you may get any combination of funny looks, the barista trying to convince you to order something else, or a roundabout sense of disgust from the natives.

If you don’t care about any of that, order away. But if you want to blend in with the locals while vacationing in the boot you should probably order an espresso, down it at the bar, then leave as soon as possible.

Maserati’s drop top grand tourer is all about practicality. Like its solid-roofed sibling the GranTurismo, the Maserati GranCabrio is meant to be the kind of vehicle you can use to commute to work, take on a long-distance trip, and have some fun in when the opportunity presents itself.

Autocross falls within the latter category. If you’re unaware, it’s an accessible and relatively safe form of racing. A large, empty, space like a parking lot is usually used, and cones are laid out to form a course. The narrowness of said course, along with the frequent twists and turns, tend to keep the top speed down. Car control and accuracy is rewarded, while carelessness and cone executions are punished.

I recently visited COTA with Maserati and while the internationally famous, F1-level, racetrack was good fun, the autocross segment was a little competitive highlight. What made it stand out wasn’t the autocross course itself, but what was being driven on it.

How Did the GranCabrio Handle The Course

If you’re wondering how the Maserati GranCabrio performed, and you want the short answer it’s this. The vehicle did better than I did. The instructor casually put up a 26-ish second time between the cones. Scotty Reiss who was in the same cohort as me absolutely torched my time (I believe she was hovering around the 27 second mark) and I barely scraped in at just under 29.

The vehicle itself was fantastic though. Alongside its sibling, it may be Maserati’s best option for autocross. The engine sitting at the front, but behind the front wheels, gives you that extra bit of agility to get around those tight bends, the all-wheel drive system provided plenty of grip too.

Plus Maserati’s frankly superb Nettuno V6 brings plenty of punch to the party. Tap the gas and the response is instant, giving you all of the short bursts of acceleration you need to whip around a cone-filled car park.

With the traction control off and “Corsa” mode selected, I did manage to get a good amount of tire screech but at no point did it feel like the wheels were slipping. The fact it was a convertible didn’t seem to affect its level of stiffness either. All in all, it’s pretty ideal for this type of activity. In hindsight, I could have pushed the GranCabrio a lot harder. Looking at my time, I probably should have.

This coverage relates to part an event held in May 2025 where Maserati provided our writer with transport, meals, and accommodation.