The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the official start of a new technology year. It’s the place where you see your next TV or smartphone, but more recently the car industry has now shifted its focus to CES. Sadly, what gets shown in Vegas never sees the light of day. It’s all flights of fancy that the manufacturers hope will get millennial bums into driver seats.
Mercedes-Benz is ringleader of the crazy car circus and didn’t disappoint at its 2020 spectacle. The VISION AVTR is everything you imagine when you marry the trend of dropping unnecessary vowels from a name to James Cameron’s 2009 visual effects magnum opus.
Yes, the AVTR in the concept car’s name is inspired by the movie Avatar. And, yes, it’s every bit as crazy as the ill-fated Mike Basson nightclub from 2012.https://youtu.be/REeg4LW14Sk
Full-electric drivetrain? Yes, with added crab-like functionality of moving sideways by 30˚. Body cast out of recycled material? Of course. Some sort of external attention seeking gimmick? How about a rear louvre that is also 33 individual solar panels that can move independently as “bionic flaps”?
Oh, and the entire dashboard is a screen that bleeds into the windshield. And the interior party piece is a control module that rises to meet your hand and causes the car to pulse and vibrate to the rhythm of your heart.
While Elon Musk is putting electrified mobility pressure on the
automotive establishment, the world’s oldest carmaker is selling flashy
dreams to disillusioned youth
Mercedes-Benz is trotting out some genuinely great ideas here. The battery concept is made from organic material and not the rare earth stuff that puts people and the planet at risk. But the car doesn’t drive. At least Merc had the decency to autonomously drive journalists up the Vegas strip at CES 2019, and that yet-to-be-released car had flashing lights that grooved to your chosen music.
While Elon Musk is putting electrified mobility pressure on the automotive establishment, the world’s oldest carmaker is selling flashy dreams to disillusioned youth. Remember that “Hey, Mercedes” ad campaign that dominated 2019 and showcased the futuristic and voice-centric MBUX user interface? It launched on the updated A-Class and you can option it, if you so please, on a car that doesn’t even have adaptive cruise control or active lane keeping.
Tesla builds its Autopilot semi-autonomous driving hardware into all of its dual motor cars and you pay extra to turn on that functionality. Google and Apple have invested billions into voice assistants and in-car entertainment integration. Smart cars should be clever enough to save lives and ease our mental burdens when behind the steering wheel, not try to run our lives – we already have phones for that.
