Several genius brains and a few pair of dexterous hands. That’s all it takes to build the future of the automobile driving. And once Mercedes-Benz put the F015 Luxury in Motion on the road, it seems like they’ve pooled all the geniuses!
The test drive video first presents the Chief Engineer, Peter Lehmann, using a smartphone app to call the car and the car arriving to pick up the passengers.
Once the F015 Luxury in Motion arrives near the people it needs to pick up, it does not flash, it does not beep, because the car knows that its future passengers see it there. The vehicle just lets them know when it is safe to cross.
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.
The Predevelopment Engineer of the F015 Exterior, Matthias Flach, explains how the car of the future projects a zebra crossing for the pedestrian to know it is safe to cross the road. The zebra color switches from white to green and starts moving in the direction matching with the pedestrians’ pre-calculated direction of moving.
The vehicle can also indicate the parking space it identifies and wants to use, in order for people to stay in a safe place. And if it’s usually driver with driver or pedestrian with driver eye-contact, there will also be eye contact with the car, so the car will make sure the people understand its intentions.
Once inside the car, seatbelts are mandatory like in any conventional vehicle. Not even this vehicle can defy the laws of physics. Once the doors close, a new world begins to display its high-tech wonders.
In order to make it go, the driver who will not drive just needs to press the “Go” button. And off it goes!
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.
And of course, sitting with your back at the traffic is supposed to be just as safe. You only need to trust the car.
Luxury, a lot of space and a high degree of comfort. The typical Mercedes-Benz style.
This vehicle was mission impossible three years ago and now it’s here.
