CES 2020 Archives

Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR concept – inspired by the AVATAR movie (w/VIDEO)

Car designers look everywhere for inspiration and ideas in the quest to create something ground-breaking. In the case of the Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR concept, it was the AVATAR movie, with several of the creatures providing the inspiration.

The concept car’s name stands not only for the close collaboration in its development with the AVATAR team but also for ADVANCED VEHICLE TRANSFORMATION. This showcar, now on display at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, is said to embody the vision of Mercedes-Benz designers, engineers and trend researchers for mobility in the distant future.

‘Inside-out’ design structure
The holistic concept of the VISION AVTR combines the design disciplines of interior, exterior and UX on an unprecedented scale. The distinctive ‘inside-out’ design structure combines inside and outside into an emotional whole with a stretched ‘One Bow’ design and organic design language. The spectacular opening and closing of the doors is inspired by the wings of a banshee or ikran, the flying mounts of the Na’vi from AVATAR.

Instead of a conventional steering wheel, the multifunctional control element in the centre 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 (a great security feature).

By simply lifting the hand, a menu selection is projected onto the palm of the hand, through which the passenger can intuitively choose between different functionalities. For example, real-time 3D graphics can be used to explore the fictional world of Pandora from different perspectives. The curved display module creates the visual connection between passengers and the outside world.

Organic battery technology
The VISION AVTR uses a revolutionary battery technology based on graphene-based organic cell chemistry that is completely free of rare earths and metals, a first. 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.

The 33 ‘bionic flaps’ on the back of the car are reminiscent of scales of reptiles. They can communicate with the driver and through the driver with their outside world through naturally flowing movements in subtle gestures. The front and rear axles can provide drive in the same or opposite direction, which allows the VISION AVTR to move sideways by approximately 30 degrees. The so-called ‘crab movement’ gives the concept car an animal-like appearance even in its movement.

This is not the first time that Mercedes-Benz has created a ‘bionic’ car. In 2005, it displayed a concept car that was inspired by the boxfish. The fish was a role model from nature, lending itself to an aerodynamically efficient, safe, comfortable and environmentally compatible automobile not just in detail features but in its overall form and structure.

Mercedes-Benz Bionic — *In 2005, Mercedes-Benz designers looked to nature – the boxfish – for their Bionic concept car.*

Sustainable materials
The seats of the VISION AVTR are refined by vegan DINAMICA leather. This is the first and only microfibre that guarantees environmental sustainability throughout the entire production cycle. The floor is decorated with an innovative wood called Karuun. The raw material for Karuun (rattan) grows very fast as a natural raw material and is harvested by hand in Indonesia. The material gives the interior warmth and radiates naturalness.

“The aim of the VISION AVTR is to show us a signpost for a livable future, even if it will probably never be built. This concept car makes speculative science visible and tangible. As researchers and scientists evolve new theories or develop existing ones, they depend on their imagination. They leave the ground of what can be proved today and enter an area of speculation – a scientifically substantiated ’what if?’. This is exactly the approach we have taken with the VISION AVTR,” said Alexander Mankowsky, who is described as a futurologist at Mercedes-Benz.

Vision Mercedes Simplex sculpture embodies heritage and future of luxury brand

Toyota to build a prototype city of the future in Japan! (w/VIDEO)

When ‘Toyota’ is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind will be the motorcar. This is the product that the company has been making since the 1930s and is a global leader in the auto industry. However, motor vehicles are not Toyota’s only business (in fact, textile looms feature in its earliest history) and apart from many other types of products, Toyota has been involved in the housing business since the mid-1970s.

Initially, the company produced prefabricated houses that could be easily constructed using a variety of different building techniques. It then expanded its business to include condominiums and rental housing. Today, the Toyota Housing Corporation is a successful subsidiary of the world’s No. 1 automaker. Employing lean manufacturing concepts and strategies from The Toyota Production System, the construction techniques meet high quality and efficiency standards.

Toyota houses — *Toyota has been offering prefabricated houses since the mid-1970s. These are two of many designs that customers can choose from.*

From offering individual houses, Toyota now plans to make a giant leap to the next level as it has revealed plans to build a prototype “city” of the future. Announced at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, the Woven City, as it is called, will be located on a 175-acre site at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan. The ground-breaking for the site is planned for early 2021.

Envisioned as a ‘living laboratory’, the Woven City will serve as a home to full-time residents and researchers who will be able to test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment.

“Building a complete city from the ground up, even on a small scale like this, is a unique opportunity to develop future technologies, including a digital operating system for the city’s infrastructure. With people, buildings and vehicles all connected and communicating with each other through data and sensors, we will be able to test connected AI technology… in both the virtual and the physical realms… maximizing its potential,” said Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motor Corporation.

Toyota will extend an open invitation to collaborate with other commercial and academic partners and invite interested scientists and researchers from around the world to come work on their own projects in this one-of-a-kind, real-world incubator.

“We welcome all those inspired to improve the way we live in the future, to take advantage of this unique research ecosystem and join us in our quest to create an ever-better way of life and mobility for all,” said the Toyota President.

For the design of Woven City, Toyota has commissioned the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and his team at BIG have designed many high-profile projects such as 2 World Trade Centre in New York and Lego House in Denmark. The firm was also responsible for the design of Google’s Mountain View and London headquarters.

“A swarm of different technologies are beginning to radically change how we inhabit and navigate our cities. Connected, autonomous, emission-free and shared mobility solutions are bound to unleash a world of opportunities for new forms of urban life. With the breadth of technologies and industries that we have been able to access and collaborate with from the Toyota ecosystem of companies, we believe we have a unique opportunity to explore new forms of urbanity with the Woven City that could pave new paths for other cities to explore,” said Ingels.

Design of the city
The masterplan of the city includes the designations for street usage into 3 types: for faster vehicles only; for a mix of lower speed, personal mobility and pedestrians; and for a park-like promenade for pedestrians only. These 3 street types weave together to form an organic grid pattern to help accelerate the testing of autonomy.

The city is planned to be fully sustainable, with buildings made mostly of wood to minimize the carbon footprint, using traditional Japanese wood joinery, combined with robotic production methods. The rooftops will be covered in photo-voltaic panels to generate solar power in addition to power generated by hydrogen fuel cells. Toyota plans to weave in the outdoors throughout the city, with native vegetation and hydroponics.

Residences will be equipped with the latest in human support technologies, such as in-home robotics to assist with daily living. The homes will use sensor-based AI to check occupants’ health, take care of basic needs and enhance daily life, creating an opportunity to deploy connected technology with integrity and trust, securely and positively.

To move residents through the city, only fully-autonomous, zero-emission vehicles will be allowed on the main thoroughfares. In and throughout Woven City, autonomous Toyota e-Palettes will be used for transportation and deliveries, as well as for changeable mobile retail.

Both neighbourhood parks and a large central park for recreation, as well as a central plaza for social gatherings, are designed to bring the community together. Toyota believes that encouraging human connection will be an equally important aspect of this experience.

Toyota plans to populate Woven City with Toyota Motor Corporation employees and their families, retired couples, retailers, visiting scientists, and industry partners. The plan is for 2,000 people to start, adding more as the project evolves.

Toyota EcoFul Town — *In 2012, Toyota also created the ‘Ecoful Town’ in Toyota City as a test project for a Low Carbon Society System.*

‘Tokyo 2020 Version’ e-Palette vehicles by Toyota to provide autonomous transport at Olympic villages

High-tech Virtual Sunvisor you can see through!

The sunvisor as we know it has been around since the earliest days of the motorcar, at least after the driver had the protection of a body around the seating area. While the windscreen glass prevented the onrush of wind from causing discomfort and affecting vision, it did not stop the rays of the sun from blinding the driver.

Back then, drivers must have attached some sort of board to the upper part of the windscreen to block the sun. Later on, when carmakers realised it was something to address, they provided a small panel which could flip up when not needed. In the 1970s, a ball joint was used at one corner so the sunvisor could be flipped to the side so that it could also block the sunshine if it was not coming from the front.

The sunvisor is one of those things in a car which has never evolved, maybe because its function is so basic. Other than adding a mirror (some with illumination) and sleeves to store cards or papers, the sunvisor is the same as what it was decades ago.

Bosch Virtual Visor — *Driving towards the evening sun can often be blinding, even with a sunvisor. This innovation could eliminate the discomfort (and danger to driving).*

Blocks the sun but not the view
Now a group of engineers at Bosch have come out with an innovation for sunvisor design which can block the sun without also blocking a driver’s view of the road. It achieves this by using an LCD panel instead of the usual cardboard or foam-filled panel. The panel can be flipped up when not needed.

There’s also a camera which is pointed at the driver’s face to recognise facial features like the nose, mouth, and, most importantly, the eyes. The camera’s video feed allows a computer to use AI to recognise shadows on the driver’s eyes and darkens only the areas on the visor where the sunlight is strong. The AI varies the darkening and generally, there should be enough areas that are not darkened for the driver to have a clear view ahead.

The Virtual Visor, as it is referred to, is not an official Bosch product yet. It was shown at the CES 2020 and described as a project which three of the company’s engineers worked on in their free time. If the company sees potential to commercialise it, then it would have to go through stringent development processes to ensure durability, safety and all the things that carmakers will demand if they are to adopt it.

Rinspeed MetroSnap concept – different bodies for different needs

Since 1991, Swiss company Rinspeed has been presenting new ideas for the transport of people and goods in the world of tomorrow. The most recent have been the Snap and the microSNAP which were displayed at the CES event in Las Vegas in the past 2 years. These are vehicles whose chassis and bodies go their own ways; with the revolutionary separation of the two vehicle components, Rinspeed confronts the increasingly diverging life cycles of hardware and software.

The ideas are modular mobility systems and in order to make economic sense, they must gain broad acceptance. That is precisely where Rinspeed is now once more taking a crucial step ahead with its 26^th concept car – the MetroSnap. This is a simple, fast, safe and inexpensive swapping system for the vehicle bodies for which the Swiss company has filed for patent protection.

Modular vehicles can help solve many of the problems and questions posed by modern mobility. Due to the flexible use of different vehicle bodies, these vehicles not only reduce the number of tremendously expensive and systemically short-lived automated vehicles, they also satisfy – depending on the time of day and current needs – the different transport requirements of people and goods.

Thanks to the unique swapping system – inspired by aviation, and tried and tested there around the world in all weather conditions – entirely new applications become possible. Among other things, the desired service now comes to the customer quickly and simply, regardless where he or she may be at the time – at home or at work.

This can be customer-accessible parcel stations that are dropped off in the customer’s neighbourhood for a certain period. Even combinations with a ‘corner health food shop’ are conceivable. Limited business hours, long drives and the endless and unpopular courier caravans are thus things of the past.

Quite as an aside: no more unattended packages, no more thefts and failed delivery attempts – and no more associated pollution and traffic burden. And the really great thing about it is this innovative way of getting parcels to the customer faster and easier can already be used today with a human driver. Parcel stations on wheels, right around the corner.

Because the batteries are split up between the Pod (vehicle body) and the Skateboard (chassis), the vehicle does not need to be parked for charging. The charging process takes place without wasted time while cleaning or loading the Pod in a process referred to as ‘Hot Swap’. The swapping of the vehicle bodies, including the batteries, takes place in a matter of seconds and the vehicle is ready to go almost as quickly as a racing car after a pit stop.

The unique MetroSnap EV concept, which fuses together smart city, supply chain and passenger transport, is meeting with very strong interest in the industry even before its actual premiere. It is full of technical and visual treats contributed by a reputable network of companies from around the world.

Volkswagen tries a new approach to recharging EVs in carparks (w/VIDEO)

FCA Airflow Vision concept shows digital future of car interiors

Since the beginning of the computer age and the use of electronic systems in cars, the driver and passengers have been interacting with more and more advanced technologies. These technologies have enhanced safety while making the travel experience more comfortable and pleasant.

With the Airflow Vision concept, Chrysler envisions the next generation of premium transportation and UX (user experience). It is created for people with an on-the-go lifestyle and a desire for a first-class travel experience while balancing their technology needs.

Inside, UX plays a prominent role and is designed to be a captivating experience using multi-layered, high-contrast graphics and thoughtful details that provide a clean, sophisticated appearance. Built on the principles of depth, hierarchy, consistency and legibility, the user will be able to see and experience the interface in a way that is safe, easy to use and understand.

Using a menu-based format, screens can be personalized, simplified and grouped to individual needs and interests. Offering multiple display screens, the user can access needed information and determine how it’s displayed. Information on the screens can be shared with all passengers by swiping, allowing each passenger to participate in the experience. Customization and personalization are key, whether driving or acting as a ‘co-pilot’.

A simple, modern and spacious interior, accented by a light, calming colour palette, offers passengers a home away from home environment and a first-class travel experience. Using the dimensions and flat-load floor of the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV, the interior creates a spacious environment for all occupants. Premium suede and leather materials are abundant, offering luxurious touchpoints to its occupants.

The seating uses a unique slim structure that rests on a pedestal base, enhancing comfort and roominess and allowing for maximum legroom, shoulder space and personal storage for each passenger. Functional and ambient lighting enables the driver and passengers to create a personalized inner sanctum.

The Airflow Vision’s styling captures a new proportion with an elegant and clean design statement, and hints at the future of premium design. It has an athletic profile, long wheelbase, sleek lines and wide stance that creates a dramatic persona and aggressive, yet elegant silhouette.

Simplified to its purest artistic expression, the Airflow Vision reimagines a muscular body that flows into and becomes one with the wheels. The wheels are inspired by mechanical elements of an electric motor and give the sense of motion similar to the internal mechanisms of a watch.

‘Crystalized’ textures throughout the vehicle add a sense of precision and intricate transition from exterior to interior. LED crystal lighting flows seamlessly into a cross-car blade that conveys a commanding presence. The Airflow Vision’s dramatic expression is completed by an Arctic White body colour that conveys a sense of calm and serenity and is supported with a Celestial Blue underbody.

As with many concept cars at motorshows, the underlying aim is to show new ideas and features to the public and see how the response is. With the Airflow Vision, the focus is largely on the digital interior and some elements could appear in future models of the Chrysler, Fiat… or even Groupe PSA brands.

Will Alfa Romeo be allowed to live under the new FCA+PSA merger?

BMW i3 Urban Suite previews the mobility experience of the future

For the past 7 years, the BMW i3 has played the role of an ‘ambassador’ for pure electric driving pleasure, sustainability and intelligent connectivity in urban areas. These qualities have helped to make it the world’s best-selling electric car in the premium compact segment. Soon, at the coming CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas, the BMW Group will show a mobility experience tailored entirely to the passenger’s individual needs – the BMW i3 Urban Suite.

Transformed i3 interior
To achieve this, a standard BMW i3 underwent a complete transformation (with only the driver’s seat and dashboard left untouched) so that its interior now has the relaxed feel of a boutique hotel. The aim was to create an inviting space with a high feel-good factor in which to spend time – the perfect place for relaxing, enjoying in-car entertainment or focusing on work in a laid-back setting.

The changes made include, among other things, the installation of a large, comfortable seat with footrest, a screen that flips down from the headliner, and a personal Sound Zone.

Sustainable mobility
The i3 Urban Suite also represents a logical step forward in the BMW Group’s commitment to sustainable mobility. The car is underpinned by a holistic approach to making responsible use of resources, encompassing the powertrain with zero local emissions, the careful selection of materials and the production processes involved.

Fabrics containing recycled materials therefore come together with certified wood and olive-tanned leather, while the floormats are made from recyclable materials that can be fed back into the materials cycle, as per circular economy principles.

In preparation for the CES, a fleet of standard i3 EVs were converted into Urban Suites in Munich and then shipped to Las Vegas where they can also be seen moving around the streets of the city that regards itself as the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World’. Indeed, anyone wishing to be chauffeur-driven to their desired destination can use a special app to hail one of the i3 Urban Suites.

The car will offer its passenger a first-hand experience of the BMW Group’s innovative and sustainable mobility concept, while clearly demonstrating that luxury travel in the future will have nothing to do with vehicle size.

The i3 is part of the BMW i family which is a comprehensive concept for sustainable mobility. The i3 with eDrive is designed especially for cities with restrictions for certain vehicles. The i3s impresses with its brisk acceleration, from low speed or even from standstill – and with a high-voltage lithium-ion battery with an everyday range claimed to be up to 260 kms. Currently, the i3s being sold in Malaysia is priced at RM278,800 (excluding insurance).

All-electric BMW i3s now available – RM278,800

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CES 2020

Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR concept – inspired by the AVATAR movie (w/VIDEO)

Toyota to build a prototype city of the future in Japan! (w/VIDEO)

High-tech Virtual Sunvisor you can see through!

Rinspeed MetroSnap concept – different bodies for different needs

FCA Airflow Vision concept shows digital future of car interiors

BMW i3 Urban Suite previews the mobility experience of the future

Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR concept – inspired by the AVATAR movie (w/VIDEO)

Toyota to build a prototype city of the future in Japan! (w/VIDEO)

High-tech Virtual Sunvisor you can see through!

Rinspeed MetroSnap concept – different bodies for different needs

FCA Airflow Vision concept shows digital future of car interiors

BMW i3 Urban Suite previews the mobility experience of the future

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