---
title: "The New Mercedes-Benz CLA Lets You Play Mario Kart on Its Infotainment Screen"
description: "Even the HVAC system blows 'wind' through your hair to simulate speed."
date: "2019-03-04"
modified: "2019-03-04"
authors:
  - name: "Stef Schrader"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/stef-schrader"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/26761/the-new-mercedes-benz-cla-lets-you-play-mario-kart-on-its-infotainment-screen"
categories:
  - "Car Tech"
  - "Infotainment"
  - "Mercedes-Benz News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
tags:
  - "CLA-Class"
  - "luxury"
  - "Mario Kart"
  - "Mercedes CLA"
  - "Mercedes-Benz"
  - "sedan"
  - "Video Games"
---

# The New Mercedes-Benz CLA Lets You Play Mario Kart on Its Infotainment Screen

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2019/03/mkart_970x546.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Mercedes-Benz debuted its new "Mercedes-Benz User Experience" (MBUX) infotainment system during the Mobile World Congress last week with a pretty nifty trick, per [*Motor1*](<https://www.motor1.com/news/307721/mercedes-cla-mbux-mario-kart/>): folks sitting behind the wheel of a new [CLA](<https://thestore.thedrive.com/>) can play a version of *Mario Kart* and even feel the wind blow through their hair as they tackle their favorite fantasy race courses.

https://youtube.com/embed/DkEe8zKMhlA

Merc loaded up the open-source *SuperTuxKart* version of everyone's favorite nineties Nintendo racer into a CLA to highlight the improvements it made to the MBUX system. Those improvements included several new applications, although it's worth noting that *SuperTuxKart* was just there to show off the system for now. Mercedes' rollout of several playable in-car games to customers is coming in the "very near future," according to *Motor1*.

That being said, *SuperTuxKart* brought the Nintendo game onto Mac, Linux, Windows and Android systems—and apparently also works on MBUX.

What's especially genius is the way Mercedes set up the game to work within the CLA's interior. The steering wheel (complete with paddle shifters, as demonstrated above) and pedals were the main controls for the game as you'd expect, but as *Motor1* describes it, the LED ambient lighting in the car switched from red to green when the green flag dropped. The car also blew air through its vents to simulate the wind rushing through your hair that you'd experience on the kart in the game, even changing the fan speed depending on your kart's speed in the game. The CLA's seat belts also tightened when karts crashed in the game.

While I'm not a huge fan of the physical disconnection of the driver's controls to the actual wheels and throttle of the engine, these games are just about the coolest consolation prize ever. Tesla also recently loaded up [several classic Atari games](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/24430/teslas-new-software-update-allows-you-to-play-classic-atari-games>) in its infotainment system, and we can't get enough of fun time-wasting Easter eggs like this.

## Author
Stef Schrader is a former senior staff writer for The Drive. She started writing about cars in 2013 after meeting Jalopnik's editor-in-chief at a race track, where Stef can be found at every available opportunity.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefschrader/>)  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/stefthepef>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/stefthepef>)