mercedes

Meet Mercedes’ Bonkers Vision for the Future

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The Tokyo Motor Show is renowned for being the home of some of the world’s weirdest automotive ideas. This year, Mercedes-Benz decided to join in the fun by exhibiting the startling Vision Tokyo Concept car, which has been described as a futuristic luxury autonomous van’. It looks, perhaps, a bit like a large silver sausage roll with a Mercedes-Benz badge stuck on the front. There is also a blue theme, with blue illumination on the rims, a blue front grille and blue illuminated side skirts.

The idea behind the car is quite revolutionary. Although it’s described as a van, it’s more of a lifestyle hub inside. The car has a roof-mounted 360 degree camera, which is essential to the car’s central feature: it is entirely autonomous, and even has a fold-away driver’s seat and wheel to prove the point. It is a hybrid car, and consequently can deliver 118 miles worth of energy from the batter, and 491 miles from the electricity produced by its fuel cell.

Rather than a traditional car layout, the Vision Tokyo Concept contains a large C shaped sofa with room for five people. On the walls are LCD television screens, while the centre contains a 3D holographic entertainment system that features apps, maps and probably many other rhyming delights. In essence it looks more like the back of a limousine than any other car, and it’s a very intriguing vision of what our transport might look like in just a few years’ time.

If you’d like to see this extraordinary car for yourself, check out the video: