Mercedes-Benz has taken car design out of this realm with its new Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR. The eccentric car concept was inspired by the 2009 movie Avatar and also the Avatar director James Cameron had a role to play in the design.
Currently being featured at CES 2020, the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR has a blend of what a consumer electronics exhibition is known for. The AVTR is powered by futuristic tech, garnished with a major entertainment property, the styling is unreal and it has scales!
The AVTR at the entire rear end is weirdly covered in 33 discreet scales or as the company calls it, “bionic flaps” which can be used to communicate with people outside the car. It also has special spherical wheels that Mercedes-Benz says were inspired by the “seeds of the Tree of Souls” from 2009’s Avatar. These wheels can rotate so that the AVTR can move sideways, or even diagonally.
According to Mercedes-Benz, the car concept is meant to give a foresight of what it will be like to board a car of the future. The interior is quite sparse but Mercedez-Benz has made it known the company is not bereft of ideas of what might be possible inside something like the AVTR.
For starters, the car lacks a steering wheel. Passengers will engage with the car through an oval-shaped controller that accordions up and out of the center console to meet your hand. Once your hand is on the controller, it (and the seats) can vibrate along with the pace of your breathing and heart rate.
Ola Källenius, the chairman of Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler, said on stage Monday night at the CES 2020 that it’s an example of how man and machine might “literally merge.”
The company also revealed that it likens the ‘merge’to how the Na’vi physically connect with their banshees in the 2009 movie Avatar. And once passengers start moving in the AVTR car, the sweeping display in front of them can light up with 3D graphics of Pandora, the fictional world from the 2009 film Avatar.
James Cameron who joined Källenius on stage agreed with the chairman’s claim. “We will merge,” Cameron said.
Mercedes-Benz imagines the AVTR car will be able to detect when a family is on board and adapt automatically. The company didn’t go too deep into what kinds of family features it would surface, though it did say in its 23-page press release that parents will be able to monitor their children from the dashboard screen.
Parents will no longer have to turn around to engage their kids and if they feel lonely, there will be a light that mimics the breathing vibration to let them know they have not yet been abandoned by their parents. But that won’t be a problem in the first place, because back-seat riders will have access to learning-oriented gaming and a “child-friendly augmented reality experience.”
The AVTR is is “powered” by graphene-based organic battery cells that don’t require rare earth minerals, which the company says may one day be compostable, and the interior is made from recycled plastics and vegan leather. Mercedes-Benz reps even said in a briefing that they believe the special spherical wheels would make less of an impact on the forest floor, should someone drive the AVTR there.
The company is given to this path as it aligns with its long term commitment of reducing its carbon footprint.
