Mercedes F015 Concept Car: Luxury In Motion

Mercedes F015 Concept

Last night at CES, the world's largest living on electronic products, Dr. Dieter Zetsche boss of Mercedes-Benz announced the F015 Concept Car: Luxury In Motion . What is behind this name a bit complicated?

F015 is the Mercedes concept car that foreshadows the future. A future that does not please everyone because it is close and there are a lot more lead. It is also a trend in recent years: the presence of automobile manufacturers in world-class shows where before only stars to share the podium were the brands like Samsung, LG, Sony, Nokia.

It's a future where BMW has to change slogan and can no longer say "sheer driving pleasure" (referring to the driving pleasure). Rolling back to our sheep: F015 is a showcar (design .. pretty special, personally not a fan) that draws on autonomous driving technology developed by Mercedes-Benz. One area in which the brand is invested for years.

Mercedes F015 Concept

Back to the past to the future And Then

It is indeed in 1986 (well .. I say that I was not born) the Daimler-Benz group launched the project Eureka PROMETHEUS (Program for European Traffic with Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety). A European project with the participation of other manufacturers, electronic component manufacturers, institutes and universities.

Mercedes F015 Concept

In this project, the cost would have exceeded 700 million euros, Mercedes was able to run a W124 E-class standalone and a vehicle called VITA, kind of big utility also strong with electronics. Then in 1995 an S-Class W140 traveled 1680 km with very little human intervention. In short there is 20, the bricks of what is today were laid.

More recently it is the latest generation of the S-Class has made ​​only miles on the open road.

Mercedes F015 Concept

The car, new lounge

You'll see in the photo gallery below, the F015 concept car shows that the car will become a new "room in the house," both living room, office .. new entertainment center. The trend is not new for years can be installed in the vehicle DVD players, TV ..


 Only there is a car that 'more' has a steering wheel .. but where the experience is not turned on driving. Where many manufacturers are retrofitting of (making their existing models compatible with an autopilot, like the Audi A7), Mercedes shows its overall reflection on what is the experience of travel through autonomous cars. A bit like in airplanes, all attention is now paid to the quality of the seats, IFE (entertainment on board) and food, we can see this trend brought to the automobile.

Mercedes F015 Concept

Mirror Mirror, tell me if you're offline

As the concept F015 can also be driven by a human, Mercedes has provided two different uses LED on the outside of the car to show what mode it is in.

The blue pill ... If the lights are blue, it is autonomous while in white someone behind the wheel.

Mercedes F015 Concept

LEDs are also used to prevent the car behind you if a pedestrian crossing in front .. indicating that it should not be exceeded to avoid spilling it.

In the long term, is that the cars will still need lights if they lead alone and with infrared vision / laser if they communicate with each other to prevent "cuckoo I brake, attention" (yes the cars of the future talk as good friends) ...

Mercedes F015 Concept

Life on board

The front seats of the F015 concept are motorized to turn: forward if the "driver" wants to drive, backwards if instead the car is in standalone mode and toward the doors for easy installation on board. It approximates how one is installed in a train, face to face. Too bad if your passengers are ugly it will look;-)

Mercedes F015 Concept

The side panels of the car contain 6 screens (including 1 per door), the car recognizes gestures, voice .. there are no more "buttons" as they were known until now. The interaction with the car changes the way. We are only talking recently about what the UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) in the automobile. A small revolution if we recall certain models of cars including the number of buttons put them in direct competition with a spaceship.

Mercedes F015 Concept

Finally in this concept it does not leave too much space to the landscape but an omnipresence of the screen. These are the opticians who will be happy with looking at our smartphones, our computers, TV and now the cars .. they'll have the prescription galore.

For now it is on a very futuristic vision and can be a bit extreme of what could be transport "road" in the years to come ... but after all it often and are the concept cars: the extreme that gradually planes to approach the reality of the market.

Mercedes F015 Concept

And after

The future of the car wreck before our eyes and - regardless of the manufacturer - advance at an impressive speed . As explained by car manufacturers, the best way for them to make us gradually accept this change it is by implementing in as many years systems which discharge or gradually complete the driver: cruise control, then the adaptive cruise control, automatic parking, automatic driving in traffic. All inexorably towards the non-necessity of driving. As a small trojan certainly ..

Cars like the F015 prefigure quite luxurious models, but there will also be more basic versions and I think that in France, it will continue to change the need to own a vehicle . Initiatives like Autolib show, the possession of the car is not a necessity in a large city. Add to this the fact that Paris, London and other capitals are becoming increasingly hostile to traffic, parking ... * have * the car ends up being a handicap than a tool.

Mercedes F015 Concept

Elon Musk of Tesla recently presented the latest innovations on board its models and functionality includes the ability for the car to park itself, to pick you up and out of the garage when she knows that her landlord has an appointment. The future is also the car that will load station and outside the city. Or knows how to move alone in a parking lot.

Mercedes F015 Concept

Once the car so we can do it also changes the concept of the taxi. No matter what time you want one, the place where you go .. there will be a solution. These are opportunities for manufacturers to have a new business model that complements the sale and leasing. An opportunity in which Daimler has already jumped with Car2Go. And if we see bigger, it also changes the definition of delivery.

Mercedes F015 Concept

Obviously this type of car ignites debate. We talk of Skynet, to be controlled by robots, it's dangerous machine versus human. But in reality, most road accidents do not happen because the machines themselves but for the misconduct of man (or woman ^^) which is at the wheel . Then said if you go in a few years to see what really look F015.