There is an inherent need for any car that's known as "the car of the future" to stay as fresh as possible, even if Mercedes did recently brake tradition by introducing its most advanced technology on the new E-Class. If Mercedes kept things that way for long, there would likely be more than one flagship sedan buyer up in arms about not having the most exclusive technology outfit, so Mercedes quickly got to work on the refreshed and facelifted S-Class.

Our talented spy photographers recently saw the fruits of that labor in Southern Europe when two S-Class siblings hit the road for some testing. In all likelihood, the engineers were testing the chops of the semi-autonomous systems from the E-Class on the larger and heavier S-Class. Thus far, the main difference is in the rear headlight graphics and the new design of the headlights. Next to the standard run of the mill S-Class, we also see its more exciting brother, the black S63 AMG that's easy to spot with its orange brake calipers and more aggressively styled camouflaged fenders. Previous spy shots of the facelifted S Class showed how the row of buttons sitting between the two dash-mounted screens had vanished.

This makes the displays seem integrated into one unit, offering a cleaner look for the driver. In addition to that, we should expect to see a new steering wheel and a revised touchpad control system on the center console. All of this was detailed in a leak of Mercedes' game plan that occurred this past July. Part of the plan also details a few 2017 releases alongside the S-Class which include a new E-Class cabriolet, which we've recently spotted evidence of, a pickup truck, and most excitingly, a facelifted AMG GT which Mercedes called the "AMG GT C Coupe." Given that the GT C roadster recently made a splash, we can't wait to see what the new GT will have to offer.