Gadgetory

let's face all that wood leather and $6,000 audio upgrades are basically a way to make your time in prison more pleasant you're still suffering under the tyranny of driving you have to sit there and babysit a machine the wheel on the pedals over a repeated route of driving that is not very interesting day-to-day this is what Mercedes is solving for not self-driving map we've already figured out this is more about what happens after you achieve self-driving how do you get real luxury out of that and the answer is twofold you get real space space is always equal to luxury and you get your time back the greatest luxury of all because mobility is to be honest it's mostly stressful to give the people the opportunity to relax to have a private place while moving they are the people will be more friendly very simple better mood and the changes in pursuit of that mission are clear even before you enter the f o 15 notice the shape of the vehicle is very different than let's say a current s-class this is not about having several volumes boxes as they call it the three box design of most sedans today but instead having what's called a mono volume pushing the wheels way out to the ends and creating big spacious doors that open up to almost an entire open side of the car here's one of the various first sketches they did of it and notice how similar it looks to a very old diagram above it there is an ancient carriage from what a couple hundred years ago and notice how it's got some similarities to it get rid of incursions from wheel wells drive shaft tunnels nearby firewalls and protrusions where gas tanks or batteries live and let's give the passengers the prime space all to themselves like a bird's nest oh it's like a like a cocoon actually that creates this atmosphere of privacy that that we consider is is the next level of modern luxury the self-driving technology enabled us to come up with a radical design concept so this is a proof that technology and design stimulates each other to have such great results that we have now in the car now here's an example of what it's like to sit in the Mercedes fo 15 as you can see now the seats are facing each other is what they call lounge mode as opposed to everyone looking forward and some of them looking at someone else's head and that kind of communicates that everyone's view is about the drive and where they're going but again we're trying to break that tyranny the lower half of each door in this concept below the glass is a large screen that can do a lot of different modes one of the most important is that they call the guided path mode and you have several menus under that one which shows your point on the route when you're going to arrive there's also a social screen to show you who's around you and who is at your destination there's a places area which is kind of a rich Pio eye presentation that is again geographically sensitive great when you're visiting a new city right this is interesting beam cam this will allow you with another drivers permission to actually log into the surround cameras on their fo 15 and watch their drive and this is the most interesting psychology of all here's the drive mode menu but I have real questions about what the nature of a cars drive mode means when you're not driving when you want connected to shifter wheel and pedals what do sport and dynamic modes deliver anymore aren't sporty dynamics from a car that's driving itself actually disruptive and distracting from the peaceful environment you're trying to establish in the cabin in the first place the face and rump of the fo 15 are part of a new relationship with others along with sensors and lighting they also include an array of LED indicators that can express what the car nose sees and expects from others around it the cities to be moving calmed Enza and ends up now there will be competition about public space so we its will be impossible that we maintain in the cities lanes for everybody yeah free lane for everybody at separation zone that will become shared so the machine the mobile robot so to say the car has to give science what he's doing so you have to build up the relationship between the people and Machinery well here we are this is the FO 15 let's go for a ride and see what it's like under its own control and power now the autonomous driving in the Mercedes fo 15 is not a new concept what they're doing here along with having the car figure out how to drive itself is also to allow it to be smart enough to work with new infrastructure to create dynamic shared spaces they're talking about smart pylons that could inexpensively and easily be adopted in your front yard to make sure no carver backs it over the curve into your lawn where you're having a picnic with your kids powertrain tech isn't the main point of this car but for what it's worth it's envisioned as an electric electric hybrid that means it's a hydrogen fuel cell car that generates most electricity on demand from stored hydrogen but it also has a battery storage system charged by that same fuel cell power train or by being plugged in it all goes out to twin electric motors one on each rear wheel with a total predicted range of 680 miles 560 of those from the hydrogen fuel cell and 125 from the batteries store in charge even more than what the f o 15 tells us about itself is what it tells us about the future of automotive design reorienting interiors from the driving task taking back time from the tyranny of the commute redefining the concept of performance and rethinking how personal cars utilize road space or cars driven CNET style standing by now at CNET on cars.com click on the road