It might look like something straight out of the movie Avatar, but Mercedes-Benz recently presented their vision for the future of transportation, and it's downright wild. Mercedes is reimagining its brand from the bottom up, bringing in wild mobility concepts across its line. The company is known for its luxury, yet conservative, high-profile cars and SUVs. Car companies have been making the switch to electric cars to meet the growing demands of new market trends.
In August, President Biden pledged that 50% of all US car sales were to be electric by 2030. The announcement was a confirmation of what big car manufacturers already knew: The market was shifting and customers demanded greener and smarter cars. After decades of fighting to continue running non-renewable and contaminating fossil fuel resources, brands like Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, BMW, Honda, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Toyota applauded the President’s announcement globally. Mercedes-Benz is also making the shift, but they are doing it in their own unique way.
In Munich’s IAA Mobility 2021 Mercedes presented their latest innovations, five fully electric cars, AI autonomous driving updates, flexible chargers that replace charging stations, and the AVTR, the company’s vision for the future. Leading the eccentricities, the Vision AVTR concept is what the company calls a functional prototype. It is extremely complex. The car has AI and it can express emotions through mini flaps located in the back of the car. The flaps express the intention, direction, and speed, or even if the car is struggling due to a malfunction. The team that created the AVTR says they wanted to create a car that behaves, moves, and feels like a living being. The AVTR has a heartbeat and can identify its owner's own heartbeat as well. Oh, and it drives based on the driver's thoughts. Yeah, you read that correctly.
Mercedes’ Wild Future Concepts Become Reality
While the thought driving component of the car is still being developed and tested, the AVTR today can be taken out for a spin and is fully functional. Inspired by the movie Avatar, it has no steering wheel and is dominated by futuristic lines from top to bottom. It's also fully electric, has augmented reality projecting controls, and can move sideways thanks to its four new soft-pad-type wheels that offer incredible maneuverability. Unlike the other five cars presented in Munich, the AVTR will not hit production anytime soon but represents the changes the luxury carmaker is planning for the decades ahead.
The fully electric models that Mercedes presented in Munich are groundbreaking in their own right. The company assures they are “leading in electric” with options from compact models to performance luxury SUVs to multi-purpose vehicles. One of the new stars is a redesigned G-Class, a cross-country Jeep-style vehicle that has been an icon for the brand for more than 40 years. Now called the EQG, the off-road icon got a futuristic update and a fully electric 4 wheel drive. For street luxury driving, Mercedes brought to life the EQE, another iconic concept redesigned for the future. The elegant coupe radiates modernity and simplicity. Inside the EQE, a panoramic driving digital screen extends the length of the car, making it one of a kind. The EQE hit emission targets of 0 and it can drive for 660 kilometers without needing to be charged.
Mercedes said that “electric charging stations are a thing of the past" while presenting its Flexible Charging System, a mobile charger that works anywhere, anytime. Other models that made their official debuts include the impressive SUV electric Maybach model and the EQB, a seven-seat vehicle that can shift its configuration depending on the transport needs. The company is also updating its autonomous driving capabilities powered by AI and deep learning. Perhaps more than any other carmaker, Mercedes has its eyes set on the future. Whether any of these vehicles will make a serious splash (or even reach dealerships) is anyone's guess, but the automotive industry could use a bit of a refresh, and these vehicles just might do it.
Source: Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR, IAA Mobility 2021