/ News
Mercedes F 015 leaps into the future of autonomous driving
When you choose to debut a full concept car at the Consumer Electronics Show, rather than the looming international auto show a few days later, it's gotta be a piece of forward-looking, high-tech wizardry. The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion is that and more. The car represents Mercedes' vision of a fully autonomous rolling lounge that envelops four passengers in technology and comfort.
The F 015 is a sort of collage of futuristic technological concepts. The smooth, pod-like car is driven by a fuel cell hybrid powertrain that powers the car (on paper at least) up to 684 zero-emission miles (1,100 km), 560 (900 km) of these on fuel cell-derived electricity and 124 (200 km) on battery power. Mercedes gives no indication as to what specific combination of batteries, fuel cells and motors supports that lofty claim, though.
Mercedes also remains pretty quiet about the exterior, outside of stating the obvious – "low-slung front end, smooth and streamlined roof line, flat front windscreen." To that we'd add it has a color scheme reminiscent of last year's Vision G-Code concept, one of our favorites of 2014.
Instead of getting weighed down in superfluous details, Mercedes zeroes in on the real highlight of the concept, the lounge-style cabin. The swiveling front seats can face forward as in a normal car, but given the lack of any human driving responsibilities, they can also swing around to face the rear passengers, creating a roomy interior space that promises to make passengers of even the Maybach S600 feel a bit cramped in comparison. The seats automatically swivel 30 degrees outward when the doors open, making it easier to get in and out.
Passengers of the futuristic car can take advantage of their new face-to-face orientation to converse amongst themselves, but who opts for real-life conversation when they can lose themselves in a world of cat videos and emoticons? The "digital arena" of the F 015 keeps occupants connected by way of six high-resolution displays integrated into the instrument and side panels. The displays can be operated via touch, gesture control and eye tracking.
We'd love to see one of these visionary autonomous concepts drop the steering wheel completely, but Mercedes follows in the footsteps of Rinspeed in leaving it there. Perhaps the world isn't quite ready to come to grips with a car stripped completely bare of manual driving capabilities. The interior keeps up Mercedes-level appearances with a combination of walnut wood, metal, glass and ice-white Nappa leather.
Mercedes doesn't provide any new details on autonomous systems, stressing that it already paved the way for these technologies with the S 500 Intelligent Drive, which drove the 62-mile (100-km) Bertha-Benz route from Mannheim to Pforzheim on its own in 2013. That car used a specially prepared 3D road and infrastructure map of the route and a robust set of vehicle sensors based on those Mercedes uses in production models. The upgraded hardware suite included a widened stereo camera, three extra long-range radars, four short-range radars at the corners, a traffic light-monitoring color camera behind the windshield, and a rear-window camera for comparing physical features against the digital mapping data set.
"We have a master plan in place to take the big leap required, getting from technically feasible to commercially viable," says Dr Dieter Zetsche, Daimler AG chairman and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars. "The F 015 Luxury in Motion demonstrates where this may take us."
While you wait for that journey to unfold, you can get an idea of what the destination will look like, both inside and outside, in Mercedes' F 015 video below.
Source: Mercedes-Benz
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/mercedes-f-015-autonomous-car-concept/35488/
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru