PARIS - The car has no steering wheel. It has no pedals. Driver and passenger trade roles without trading seats. A computer decides whether the car really ought to turn the way the driver has indicated. And Mercedes-Benz is serious about building it.
The question is: when?
In unveiling its revolutionary F200 Imagination coupe concept car at the Paris auto show, the German automaker gave assurances that upcoming Mercedes vehicles would use such technology.
'The majority of these innovations will find their way into company products in this decade,' vowed Deiter Zetsche, a member of the Mercedes-Benz AG board responsible for sales. 'Technology is not a major issue for us. I trust it's absolutely feasible that we could put this technology in use.'
The innovations are being showcased on the large Mercedes coupe that is not planned for production. Company officials would not say which innovations would appear in which other cars.
The coupe's most radical feature is its airplane-inspired cockpit. A 'side-stick' that resembles a large computer joystick replaces the steering wheel. It controls acceleration, steering and braking from the center of the instrument panel.
'The side-stick certainly won't be in use in this decade,' Zetsche said. 'It's not unrealistic that it would be in use during the next decade.'
Because it is in the center, either front passenger may be the driver, trading the controls as desired.
Olivier Boulay, general manager of the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center of Japan, said young people are growing up using joy sticks to control computers and electronic games. To them, he said, a stick control may seem more ordinary than a steering wheel.
The car was designed in Japan by Anthony Lo. A senior designer at the studio, he had three days in July 1995 to complete a proposal for the car. Eventually, the proposal beat out ideas from Mercedes design centers in California and Germany.
Zetsche noted that putting the controls in the middle of the panel will help the automaker reduce production costs by eliminating right-hand- and left-hand-drive cars. Zetsche said that making a right-hand-drive version of a left-hand-drive car adds about $1,500 in cost.
Mercedes has tested the side-stick technology with 18-year-old Germans with no prior driving experience. The test showed that drivers easily mastered the stick.
Other breakthroughs on the F200 include:
Drive-by-wire. Steering and control commands pass through an onboard computer before being executed. The system controls against handling mistakes, like dangerous combinations of road conditions, braking and steering.
No rear-view mirrors. A view of the rear is displayed on an instrument panel monitor via minicameras.
Swing-up doors. Not the gull-wing doors of Mercedes' past, but doors that swing sideways above the roof while remaining close to the body. Car doors can open fully in tight parking spots.
Window-bags. Since there is no steering column to house an airbag, Mercedes proposes a new design in bags that would run along the interior sides of the car, around structural pillars and under windows.
Keyless go. A credit card-like device signals the car on the driver's approach and unlocks the doors. The push of a button starts the car.
Moving headlights. The light beams both follow steering maneuvers and automatically adjust to driving conditions and speed. The technology has been developed by European lighting suppliers through a vehicle research project dubbed EUREKA.
The F200 was developed jointly by Mercedes design teams in Germany, the US and Japan, said Juergen Hubbert, head of Mercedes' passenger car business unit.
'The first time I drove the F200 with side-sticks in the simulator, I didn't believe that this could work,' Hubbert admitted. 'Today I can say that this is more than simply an exciting new driving experience, because this concept opens up entirely new possibilities for the design of the interior.'
