The Mercedes-Benz F 015
We know it isn’t wise to drink and drive, but there is hope that one day we might all be able to enjoy a glass of wine in the comfort of our cars. Mercedes-Benz has just unveiled a driverless car concept, a lounge on wheels if you will. Its steering wheels are stowed away when driving itself, and its interior offers a variable seating system, with four rotating lounge chairs and a coffee table in the middle. It behaves like a smart house, where passengers may interact intuitively with the car by means of a touchscreen, gestures, or eye-tracking.
The Audi Prologue
Tasked with the job of reinventing the face of Audi, design chief Marc Lichte has created the Prologue, a concept car that has 80 to 90 per cent of its other production cars’ design cues. Featuring a 597bhp twin-turbo V8 engine, the wider, narrower grille will soon be seen on future A6s, 7s, 8s, and the 9. What we are anticipating though, is an updated minimalist space with the A9. A cabin-wide OLED screen is split into three. Two for the driver, and one for the passenger, who can send route suggestions to the driver’s screen at just a touch of a screen.
The Ram 1500 Rebel
Pickup trucks can be cool. They’re helpful, unassuming, and very useful for the long off-road drive you’ve always wanted to take. Meet Chrysler’s 2015 Rebel, a meaty package designed to capture the heart of the “active lifestyle enthusiast”. It’s not an extreme, desert-race kind of vehicle, but it has been recalibrated to cope with a higher ride height and better off-road ability with Bilstein monotube shocks, a softer rear anti-roll bar and reworked jounce jumpers.
The Chevy Volt
General Motors has redesigned a second generation version of the plug-in hybrid. It’s less noticeable, but in a good way. General Motors has decided to remove the hideous black stripe that once ran under the side windows, and instead of producing something stark, the new Volt has now begun to blend in with the simple Ford Focuses and Honda Civics. It’s set to perform better too, with its lighter lithium-ion battery pack that holds more charge than its predecessor.
The Toyota Mirai
The Mirai is Toyota’s first attempt at making the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. Seemingly greener than the electric automobiles of today, it adheres to four ‘clean’ standards:
1) The Mirai derives energy from hydrogen, something the world has in abundance
2) It involves very few moving parts. Hence, less maintenance
3) Given the fact that the only byproduct of a hydrogen fuel cell is water and oxygen, the car emits zero harmful gases into the air