Mercedes-Benz has revealed actual driving footage of its insane electric Vision AVTR car prototype inspired by Avatar.
The German automaker unveiled the concept earlier this year and we didn’t even covered it on Electrek because it looked too crazy to ever make it to production.
That’s still the case, but Mercedes-Benz has now unveiled actual footage of the electric vehicle driving and it’s just too cool not to share it with you.
The idea behind the Vision AVTR is inspired by the movie Avatar and the idea of “merging” with your vehicle – not unlike the Na’vi merging with the flying mountain banshees in the movie.
But don’t worry, you don’t have to plug yourself into the car like you would with a banshee in Avatar.
The electric vehicle is controlled through a pulsating sensor in the center console:
Obviously, not something that would be legal on the road today, but Mercedes-Benz is trying to envision technologies of the future.
They wrote about the concept:
“Instead of a conventional steering wheel, the multifunctional control element in the center console allows human and machine to merge. By placing the hand on the control unit, the interior comes to life and the vehicle recognizes the driver by his or her heartbeat and breathing.”
As for the powertrain, Mercedes-Benz says that the vehicle is powered by “a revolutionary battery technology based on graphene-based organic cell chemistry”:
“For the first time, the VISION AVTR concept vehicle is using a revolutionary battery technology based on graphene-based organic cell chemistry that is completely clean of rare earths and metals. The materials of the battery are compostable and therefore completely recyclable. In this way, electric mobility becomes independent of fossil resources. As a result, Mercedes-Benz underlines the high relevance of a future circular economy in the raw materials sector.”
That’s likely just conceptual and the electric powertrain of the prototype is probably just a regular electric test bed for prototypes.
But the wheels and steering system are quite special and enable a ‘crab walk’ just like the recently teased GMC Hummer EV’s ‘Crab Mode’.
Check out Mercedes-Benz’s newly released video about the Vision AVTR concept for some footage of the features in action – it’s worth the 13 minutes of your time:
Electrek’s Take
Much like seeing the Tesla Cybertruck in action, it looks like the footage is CGI, but it’s an actual working prototype.
We aren’t likely to see these features make it into a production car anytime soon, or ever in some cases, but it is still a cool project in my opinion.
What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.
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