Mercedes autonomous concept unveiled at CES 2015

• Mercedes has unveiled its autonomous driving concept at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 in Las Vegas. The concept has been named ‘F 015 Luxury In Motion’. 

• The German carmaker says the new concept “shows how the automobile is changing from a means of transportation to a private retreating space”, complete with swivelling chairs in place of traditional car seats. The four seats can pivot to allow for face-to-face conversations during autonomous driving, towards the door for easy ingress and egress, and to conventional positions while manual driving. Connectivity is handled by a six touchscreen set-up on the inside. They can recognise eye tracks, gestures and swipes. The cabin is also lit with LED lamps that glow blue in autonomous mode and white when being manually driven.
• Space on the inside is quite generous, thanks to the F 015 measuring 5220mm long, 2018mm wide and 1524mm high, with an ample wheelbase of 3610mm. The lightweight body is built using materials like carbonfibre-reinforced plastic, aluminium and high-strength steel. It is claimed to be around 40 percent lighter than lightweight structures being used today.
• Mechanically, the F 015 uses a plug-in hydrogen fuel cell and two electric motors developing a combined 268bhp.