Click here for a seven slide show of a very innovative Mercedes design.
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About About
Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches Entrepreneurship
&
Innovation and Marketing
@ Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indiana USA.
His interests include students, anything involving technology, Social
Marketing,
brain-computer interfaces, and boomers as
entrepreneurs. He is also coordinator of Purdue's Certificate
in Entrepreneurship Program. Hank can be
reached 24/7 here: hank -at-entr200-dot-com.
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Recent Comments
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um…where the hell is the steering wheel? It’s good to see that Mercedes is leading the innovative trek to a better car, but it’s hard to believe in my lifetime i’ll probably be driving one of these around. When this car hits the market in no less than 10 years, I know the first buyer will not be American. Americans would take longer to accept this new style of transportation.
This car is pretty sweet. It will no doubt take a long time to learn how to drive, but I hope that if/when it hits the market I can get a ride in one (if not afford to buy one).
The steering wheel is gone but it is probably the shifter and the shifter turns and that turns the vehicle. The “Innovative Mercedes SLC600″ would be anybody’s dream, but when it first comes out there will not be much demand except for the people that can pay for it. This car will only hit a certain target market and that is the rich, but when it becomes cheaper the teenagers will also be the target market. I know many mothers will not buy this car because they need something easier to get in and out of. Mercedes is doing a good thing with leading with innovation, but they also need to take that innovation and put into a vehicle where the target market is wider.
This car is amazing! Of course I am not a car buff, but the Lamborghini doors are awesome and I love how the drunk opens. Of course being a girl i do look at the style of the car and for some reason the back looks like an older chevy/ford cop car. The inside reminds me of an airplane, i thought this same thing when my mom first bought her Escalade but esp. with the shifter it looks like it can fly! I know this is a small target market, but every car company comes out with these new innovative cars that cost millions of dollars and somehow they always sell. I am excited to see this car come out and to possibly see it around sometime! And I bet that the SLC600 can park itself as well.
I’m curious to how they’re implementing the no steering wheel part, are they going to use GPS and a AI steering program? Or are they going to make us press all those buttons? Either way I think this is the way cars might look like in 20 years.
I don’t understand where they are going with this idea. There isnt even a steering wheel for the driver. This idea seems a little bit out there for now, but with technology advancing everyday, this could be the next thing in automobiles.
This is the next big jump in automotive history. There are cars being tested now I believe this is also Mercedes, that makes it so when you are on the highway you don’t have to do anything. They way they do it is that they have antennas on the roofs of the cars that correspond with each other, so if one car is braking the car behind it knows. This is just taking that idea one step farther and eliminates all use for the steering wheel and pedals, instead of us driving and doing all the work, all we’ll probably have to do is tell a GPS system where you want to go and the computer in the car does the rest of the work.
I’d bet money the steering wheel is here to stay. I’m all for innovation especially in the auto industry, but there had better be a really easy and logical means for operating this car. However logical and easy it may be though, I personally like the control of driving a car…take that control away via GPS or other technology, then the passion of driving and owning a car has been negated for me. At that point, it’s no more than a computer or a wrench to me: simply a means to get a particular task done easily. Yeah, that’s nice…yawn.
I need not be so critical though, it’s only a prototype and I have no idea what all those buttons do inside it. My only hope as an auto enthusiast, however, would be that one of them makes a stearing wheel pop out of the dash and big gas pedal up from the floor.
As far as other auto innovations go, I find a gm concept ‘Hy-wire’ interesting. I was introduced to it when I was watching some Top Gear episodes (a British car show featuring Jeremy Clarkson) on youtube last spring. Here’s the link if you feel so inclined. It really would be ashame if car enthusiasts never get to see an episode of Top Gear because no American car show is anywhere near as entertaining! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcs662uA7zY
What a sweet ride! Isn’t there just something about grabbing hold of that steering wheel when you drive though? How are you gonna feel like mario andretti without one? And what about phrases like “getting behind the wheel” or “hands at 10 and 2″? “Sitting aside the shifter” and “hand at 2:45″ just doesn’t have the same effect. Kind of aside the point but seeing those slides just kind of made me think about the role technology plays in our daily communication in terms of phrases and sayings. I mean think about it. How many times do you hear people say “Google it” or “Mapquest it”? I’m going to the benz dealer now and ordering my SLC600.
I’d buy one in a SECOND! The joystick controls are already in skid-loaders, excavators and a ton of other machinery why not cars. It will still be fun to drive and i bet more responsive too. I say forget about the 10 and 2 crap ( i never used it anyway) and getting “behind the wheel”.
Ive got a Mitsubishi 3000gt and no one thats ever been in mine could tell you its not fun to drive, but id jump at the change for joystick controls and most of the interior stuff. A car like that will be in my garage someday.
and I’m American.
I fear change, you fear change, we all fear change. How many of us chringe at seeing something that has worked so well been disregared. I miss my streering wheel. There is a old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
This definatly true for cars. For example, the world has not changed the type of fuel that cars use since the beginning of the car’s invention. Now we have biofuels , electric engines, Ethenol, and hydrogen. All of these are good fuels, but do we switch to them, hell no. Yes, we think, “that would be so cool to have an electric or ethenol car”. But, how many really would go out and risk having a car that is a pain in the butt. No one. Almost everyone says, “Wow i should get a hybrid “. How many people do you know that actually own a hybrid? One out of hundreds.
Cars are not gadgets were a new, radical idea is accepted. Cars have not really changed for 70 years, and I don’t think they will for at least another twenty.
Its about time we got a damn change in the automotive world! I mean, look at PCs. They used to have one processor. But the Playstation 3 has upto 8 PROCESSORS!!!! Its about time we got a change in the mechanical world. This with some blue colors would be a Sci-Fi screenplay writers dream come true!!
I like being in control, I’m not sure how it would feel to be in a car like this. I would be hesitant to buy it, because I would always reach for the steering wheel, or move to step on the gas or break and it wouldn’t be there…
I dont no how I would like to drive a car without a steering wheel, but the car is pretty cool. I liked the trunk and the doors. Its neat and very innovative.
If we are going to fly properly, the joystick needs to be centred to the driver - ie between the legs. Check any aircraft.
That’s great. I love mercedes. The car looks pretty normal till you get inside. Then it seems to turn into the inside of a plane cockpit. The steering wheel is a bit more practical, but I can see how the throttle concept might work, the positioning seems a bit weird though. Maybe if it was in the middle of the dashboard on the driver’s side it would make more sense.
Love in the innovativeness of Mercedes. I’d like to see when they come out with a demo car. Guess I should start going to some auto shows.
Geez! What a bunch of DWEEBS!! I guess the reviewer was right - - if you’re not smart enough to grasp the concept, you have NO BUSINESS trying to operate this car!! You still have FULL CONTROL of this vehicle. It is NOT computer driven. There is no magic GPS genie in the sky guiding this car. It’s still all controlled by the nut in the left seat (this one looks like the nut in the right seat could also have a shot at it - - cool)!! It has a CVT (Constant Variable Transmission), like the Prius - - you just select Forward or Reverse, and it matches engine torque to your current speed - - no clutch required. Right Left, Fast Slow are all controlled by the joystick. If you want slow, in a hurry, it automatically applies the brakes. My guess would be, forward for fast, back for slow, lean left to turn left, lean right to turn right. What more do you need?? It’s true “drive by wire” - - like the F-16, or any of the newer fighter jets.