C lose your eyes and imagine: it’s the middle of the 22nd centu- ry, you’re living in a megalop- olis similar to those of contem- porary sci- lms. You sit in the cockpit of a car, but you don’t engage the igni- tion with a key/card, and there’s no noise or engine vibrations. Your position in the vehicle does not characterise you as a driver. You’re no longer a passenger ei- ther any more. You become one with the vehicle, and through it you directly feel all the changes in the environment, you enjoy three-dimensional representations of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet, while the only sound around you is the chirping of birds... Welcome to Avatar. No, this is not about a sequel to James Cameron’s cult creation. Yet it really is con- nected to that lm that pushed the bound- aries of cinematic art. This is the latest Mercedes-Benz conceptual vehicle, with which the Stuttgart-based company has once again tickled our imagination sen- sors, presenting its own vision of some- thing that could represent the future of the automotive industry. Stu of the famous carmaker’s de- velopment department drew huge in- spiration from Cameron’s masterpiece. In it the relationship between man, na- ture and technology in the future is shown
in a spectacular way, so it would certainly have been a great challenge for Mercedes designers and engineers to repeat something similar when it comes to a vehicle – es- pecially today, when the concept of a four-wheel vehicle is still quite tra- ditional. Nonetheless, of the Mercedes cars as we know them today, they succeeded in retaining only – a mask! The associ- ation of a liation is clear with it, while everything else comes from the im- aginations triggered by the world of the Na`vi tribe. Let’s start in order... The AVTR body is more reminiscent of a sculpture with uid lines,
There are no buttons or switches, only one eld which is touched by the palm to create an instant connection with the vehicle dlan. Tog trenutka nastaje konekcija sa vozilom Ne postoje dugmići i prekidači, već samo jedno polje na koje se položi
dok automobil promenom ambijen- talnog osvetljenja i svetlećim linijama na karoseriji prikazuje trenutno ras- položenje i osećanja putnika „skeni- rajući“ ritam disanja i otkucaje srca... Uz sve navedeno verovatno nije potrebno napomenuti da je i najsitniji deo automobila izrađen od ekoloških materijala, a korišćen je, recimo, tek- stil koji menja boju prema uglu sve- tlosti ili mikrofiber od reciklirane PET ambalaže, kao i posebna vrsta rata- na iz Indonezije... Pogon je, naravno, orijentisan ka nultoj emisiji. Baterije (reciklirajuće, od grafena) kapaciteta 110 kWh u stanju su da autonomiju AVTR-a dovedu do 700 pređenih ki-
lometara, što omogućava dugu i kom- fornu vožnju. I danas, a verovatno i u dalekoj budućnosti. Kad je reč o onoj bliskoj, ljubite- lji Kameronovog dela sa nestrplje- njem očekuju nastavak sage, koja bi do 2027. godine trebalo da sadrži čak pet delova. Premijera drugog dela bila je zakazana za prošli decembar, kada je predstavljen i automobil, ali je sve odloženo za kraj ove godine. Nestrpljivi su fanovi, ali i ljubitelji automobilizma, ne samo zbog no- vih avantura Nejtiri i Džejka Salija već i zbog mogućnosti da nastavak donese novu inspiraciju automobil- skim dizajnerima...
where it is di cult to identify where the exterior ends and the interior begins. The doors are transparent and almost appear non-existent, and when opened they sim- ulate the movements of the wings of the gigantic Ikran creatures, the personal pro- tectors of the Na’vi, who form a special bond with their masters and become one
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