Mercedes-Benz provided an extended virtual preview of what the future holds regarding the interior of its future autonomous vehicle concept during TecDay “Autonomous Mobility” event.
Having conducted a lot of research, studies and tests in the area of autonomous driving, Mercedes-Benz sees a lot of potential for this particular topic in the future.
Therefore, the German manufacturer made a clear statement during TecDay “Autonomous Mobility” seminar, explaining that autonomous vehicles will be commonplace and socially accepted in the cities of the future.
Mercedes-Benz has already turned the dream of autonomous driving into reality with its S 500 Intelligent Drive and Future Truch 2025 prototypes, but is now looking forward to work on concrete ideas that will influence the future of autonomous driving.
For the design of the interior, Mercedes-Benz engineers, designers and futurologists combined the “more space, more time, more ways to interact” motto with its typical interpretation of “Modern Luxury” – elegant, generous and intuitive.
In this respect, the entire interior orbits around the variable seating system, with four rotating lounge chairs that allow a face-to-face seat configuration. According to Mercedes-Benz, this should allow the front passenger to turn around and talk directly to the other passengers while the vehicle is moving.
“Autonomous driving relieves pressure and stress in driving situations usually regarded as tedious – for example in tailbacks, in inner-city areas or on long journeys. At the same time, it opens up new ways in which people can make the best use of their time on the road,” explained Prof. Dr Herbert Kohler.
In addition, they can focus their attention towards the front for manual driving and can take action using an extendable steering wheel designed by Mercedes-Benz.
Moreover, the interior becomes a “digital living space”, where the occupants can interact with the vehicle using gestures of touch displays but the system can also automatically recognise the wishes of individual occupants by detecting eye, hand and finger movements.
“Visions are necessary to drive the social discourse on mobility and the design of the urban environment ahead,” says Prof. Dr Herbert Kohler. “With our innovative interior concept of a luxury lounge for an autonomous vehicle of the future, we are giving a specific outlook on our ideas of future mobility. This interior concept forms an essential part of a new overall vehicle concept which we will be unveiling at the CES in Las Vegas.”
For a better understanding of how the Intelligent Drive system works, make sure you check the two videos below:
