Yes, even babies can drive this car! This is how the latest TV ad from Mercedes-Benz promotes the car that drives itself, the F015 Luxury in Motion.
A toddler sits in the driver’s seat while cruising around San Francisco, with dad paying attention to anything else but the road, in the lounge area of the autonomous Mercedes-Benz F015 Luxury in Motion. The music playing in the clip is a remake of the world famous hit of the 60s, played by The Beatles, “Baby, You Can Drive My Car” and included in the “Rubber Soul” album.
The video brings into present a vision of the future: future driving and future grown-ups not being stressed out about traffic jams, nor traffic last moment decisions. The car is going to take the decisions for them. But now, the baby “driver” just smiles and waves around, as the sensors of the vehicle identify the pedestrians and the cameras read the traffic lights, signs, together with the cars around. On the outskirts of the city, the vehicle sees the tight bends and runs accordingly.
The Project Director, Jurgen Weissinger, claims that now, being stuck in traffic can become quite interesting, since you can do anything, with no need to pay attention to the road.
By evening, the two passengers are taken back to town. The baby stretches tiny hands towards the city lights, while the father peacefully takes a nap in the car that seems to know exactly where to go and how to reach the destination safely.
And in order to support their vision of autonomous driving, Mercedes-Benz has made public the information according to which their autonomous vehicles have not been involved in any accidents while testing.
But no matter how safe the F015 can be, once inside the car, seatbelts are mandatory like in any conventional vehicle. Not even this one can defy the laws of physics. When the doors close, a new world begins to display its high-tech wonders.
Ratko Jagodic (Senior UX Designer) was the man to develop an interface for the car using eye-tracking and gesture interactions. The car understands what passengers are looking at and by simple hand movements, it can zoom in or zoom out the information it displays.
The F015 Luxury in Motion – says Mercedes-Benz – changes everything. That is their vision of autonomous driving.
