Mercedes Vision AVTR is a “living creature” with “bionic flaps”

Nope, this wild dream-sequence of a car is not going to turn into your next C-Class. It really is unobtanium (fans of the film will get it). But in that ever-impressive forward-thinking way that automotive designers have, the show car does have a role to play. Mercedes says it previews a completely new interaction between human, machine and nature. 

The car draws its inspiration from the film which for those who do not know is set on the planet Pandora where a genetically engineered tribe of natives – Avatars – are remotely controlled by brain waves from the humans. Mercedes’ engineers, designers and “trend researchers” have taken the idea a stage further by imagining a car that delivers a biometric connection between man and machine.

The steering wheel – so last century – is replaced by the driver merely placing a hand on the centre console, enough for the machine to recognise the person from their breathing and heartbeat and bring the car to life. After that just lifting a hand is enough to pull up menus for different functions, displayed in 3D graphics on a curved display module.

The design, what Mercedes calls “inside-out”, is as organic as you expect an Avatar to be, right down to its scaly back, reinforcing the impression this is a living creature. Those reptilian-like scales are actually 33 "bionic flaps" which communicate between the driver and the outside world through what the people behind the Mercedes AV TR says are “naturally flowing subtle gestures”.

It moves along electrically of course, thanks to “organic” batteries. These, asserts Mercedes, are created from graphene-based organic cell chemistry that is free of rare earths and metals, and thus completely recyclable. In a neat trick, the motors can make the AVTR crab sideways by up to 30 degrees, making it appear even more animal like. And you thought it was just the suspension out of alignment…

Organic, holistic and definitely unobtanium, the Mercedes AVTR is a view of mobility in the distant future. But not necessarily in a galaxy far, far away…