Mercedes F 015 Concept a vision of future motoring

Audi plans to make autonomous cars available to the public in 2017, but others say it will be 10 years before self-driving vehicles will be technologically ready for the road — and for legislation and liability issues to allow widespread use of them.

In car years a lot happens in a decade, but you’ve probably already experienced some of the basic functions of autonomous vehicle technology from the driver’s seat. Lane Departure Control, Active Cruise Control and Automatic Emergency Braking are prelude technologies to the time when the driver will be superseded by advanced sensors, computers and artificial intelligence.

Mercedes-Benz is preparing for that day, and the F 015 concept car revealed on Monday night by Mercedes-Benz chairman Dieter Zetsche at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas is a wide-looking preview into what’s possible and probable.

As you can see, the F 015’s exterior is almost sedate. The interior still has four seats, a steering wheel and two pedals. You can drive the car normally using manual control or you as the driver can choose autonomous control. This F 015 is not an example of a design revolution. It is an illustration of a technological revolution.

Zetsche takes time to clarify Benz’s view of autonomous control. "The user of an autonomous Mercedes-Benz will always remain the decision maker,” he says.

And while the technology of the self-driving car is rapidly moving forward, Zetsche and the concept designed at Benz’s advanced technology studio in California’s Silicon Valley illustrate several key benefits of vehicular autonomy.

“In the future, an autonomous car will offer private space and quality time,” says Zetsche, “an exclusive cocoon on wheels.”

“The car will become a third personal place – home, office, car,” he explains.

Autonomous technology will allow the driver to relax and the autonomous Benz of the future will be a private place, describes Zetsche, “where you’ll want to hang out and relax.”

Luxury in motion, as he puts it, is the very philosophy of the F 015 concept. The interior is large and spacious, as you might expect from a car with a long wheelbase and a powertrain significantly reduced to a few compact electric motors.

Gone is anything resembling a dash and centre console. There are no touch commands either to control infotainment, comfort settings or ambient lighting inside the F 015.

Large spacious seats which swivel 360 degrees allow passengers to sit face-to-face and talk or do what’s commonly done when not driving. Personal connectivity screens with proximity sensors and gesture control have eliminated switches and actual buttons.

There will always be the need for cup-holders, however. Autonomous cars may replace the need for a driver, but they won’t replace the need for drive-throughs and a place to park a 32-ounce Big Gulp.

Some of the future technology you won’t see, but some of it is simply impressive. For example, the F 015 can detect a pedestrian, stop and then project a crosswalk onto the road for the pedestrian to cross safely. Of course, an automated female voice sexier than Siri says thank you.

That’s not all; a wide LED panel across the rear valence panel displays the pedestrian’s progress to those cars stopped behind the F 015.

Wrapped in a futuristically styled four-door body, Merc's vision of the luxury car of the future measures 5220mm long, 2018mm wide and 1524mm high, making it about 25mm shorter, 120mm wider and 35mm higher than the long-wheelbase S-class. Yet at a long 3610mm, its wheelbase is no less than 445mm longer than the biggest production Benz's, hence the super-short overhangs.

Naturally, the F 015 features a plug-in hydrogen fuel cell electric powertrain, offering 0-100km/h acceleration in a claimed and a zero-emissions driving range of more than 1100km, including about 200km from a lithium ion battery and 900km from the electricity generated by the fuel cell. Hydrogen is stored in 5.4-litre tanks integrated into the floor and a total system output of about 215kW drives an electric motor at each rear wheel.

Zetsche admits autonomous technology raises several key questions that have yet to be answered by Benz, governments and insurance companies. Questions such as personal data security, the legal implications if an autonomous vehicle crashes, and ethical questions that may prioritise decisions made by artificial intelligence.

Pure self-driving autonomous vehicles are a long way into the future but the F 015 concept gives us a great insight into Benz’s thinking of how the future of autonomous technology may impact the exterior design and features of a C-Class, E-Class or S-Class in 10 to 20 years.