James Cameron’s cinematic masterpiece, Avatar, showed audiences a world where humanity, nature, and extraterrestrial life were interconnected, calling upon themes of coexistence, existentialism, and profound intimacy to create one of storytelling’s most lauded works. While the movie’s aesthetic was decidedly otherworldly, its fauna-covered planet, Pandora, seems to have made a lasting impression on Mercedes-Benz, resulting in the Vision AVTR Concept vehicle you see here.
At CES 2020, Mercedes-Benz’s “holistic concept” was tasked to detail the intricacies of nature, its impact on the automaking world, and the connection vehicles might share with our ecosystem in the distant future. The car’s sleek, animalistic exterior calls upon 33 aero-oriented “bionic flaps” on its rear, shifting, moving, and adapting much like scales, allowing it to communicate with drivers and passersby through the use of subtle gestures, while a versatile axle system allows the Vision AVTR’s wheels to operate independently, resulting in 30-degree lateral movement. Sustainable vegan DINAMICA leather, innovative, fast-growing Indonesian wood (dubbed Karuun), and the orchestration of graphene-based organic cell chemistry devoid of rare earth and metals, help the car to promote its environmental vision. Inside, the Vision opts to forgo a conventional steering system for that of biometric connection, merging both driver and machine through a multifunctional control element that can sense its user’s heart rate and breathing patterns.
