Mercedes reveals its self-driving car of the future, a lounge on wheels

When the company that invented the automobile unveils a concept car that drives itself, the era of vehicles that let their passengers relax rather than rage on the road is nigh. Hence the Mercedes-Benz F015 Luxury in Motion, its latest fully autonomous experimental vehicle, and one that challenges the very definition of "driver."

The four-seat luxury vehicle unveiled in Las Vegas at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show joins the soon-to-be-produced S500 Intelligent Drive and futuristic Actros 1845 truck in Benz’s stable of semi- and fully autonomous prototypes. It combines the attributes of a traditional luxury vehicle with the technology needed to survive what Mercedes envisions as the over-crowded urban landscapes of the year 2030 and beyond.

 “The Luxury in Motion is for the individual who wants to retreat to a private place, relieving themselves of the stress and work involved with driving in the ever more hostile urban environment where driving is not enjoyable,” says Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler and head of Mercedes cars.

At first glance, the F015 looks odd even by sci-fi car standards; it’s 205.5 inches long, 79.4 inches wide, and 60 inches tall. The F015’s wheelbase of 142.1 inches runs 9.6 inches longer than the S Class, and just a little shorter than a Maybach 57, which is 42 inches longer overall. Yet the F015 is wider and taller than both of those vehicles, providing a massive amount of interior space.

The F015’s chassis combines carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, aluminum and high-strength steel into a body shell that weighs 40 percent less than today’s production vehicles. Mercedes claims no sacrifices to safety, despite a saloon-style door system that allows the doors to be opened up to 90 degrees without a center pillar.