Multi-Chemistry Batteries, Solar Paint: Mercedes' Vision For The Future

From augmented reality to neural networks for autonomous driving, we saw the technology that Mercedes could launch in the next decade.

Mercedes sees itself as both the inventor of the automobile and a beacon of innovation in the automotive industry in its over 100 years of existence. Even though some recent decisions haven’t really kept it ahead of the pack like it once was, it wants to retain its position as a technological leader as it transitions to an electric future.

Two weeks ago, Mercedes flew me to Stuttgart, where it showcased its exciting new CLA, which will be available in pure electric and hybrid forms, as well as in sedan and shooting brake body styles. It also gave me and a group of journalists a peek at innovations that are still in the very early stages of development and testing, which is quite a treat given the often secretive nature of these automakers' research and development projects.

These pieces of technology may or may not make it into a future production car, but it was fascinating to get a chance to see some developments that usually wouldn’t have been made public for years, if ever.

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Three Major Urban Centers In 2040+

The presentation began with a look at what three large cities could look like in the year 2040 and beyond and how they are expected to evolve differently.

Mercedes showed off its "2040+" vision for London, Los Angeles and Shenzhen. London is seen as a blend of the traditional and cutting-edge, elimination of street parking with automated vehicles and robotaxis autonomously ferrying passengers around the city. Last-mile transport would exclusively be handled by electric vans and cargo bicycles and the vast majority of vehicles would be powered exclusively by electricity.

That’s quite different from Los Angeles, where the personal car will still be the predominant form of transport even after the end of the next decade. (Mercedes has to secure a future for G-Wagen sales, after all.) It would contain a mix of new electric vehicles and classics powered by gasoline, and spaces that were once dedicated to parking could be turned into green areas for leisure and relaxation. Robotaxis would be very common, which makes sense given that such vehicles are already operating without a driver in California.

Shenzen in the year 2040 and beyond would make a perfect backdrop for the Cyberpunk universe. It’s already like that today, and over the next 15 or 20 years, it will further embrace being highly digitalized. The number of vehicles, both driver-operated and autonomous, would increase even more, and the city would require smart infrastructure to keep everything flowing smoothly. Drones would handle last-mile delivery and high-speed trains and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft would serve as taxis.

Paint That Generates Electricity

While putting solar panels on electric vehicles so that they gain free miles of range while out in the sun seems like a logical next step, it’s not really that common. Automakers (Mercedes included with the EQXX) have tried implementing them, but current photovoltaic technology can’t provide enough current to justify having solar cells on cars.

Sono Motors wanted to integrate them in all of the car’s body panels, but the company has now abandoned its solar car plans. Aptera is another manufacturer that wants to integrate photovoltaics into its vehicles, and it promises to start building cars next year, but we’re still reserved concerning its success.

The Mercedes EQXX has a large solar roof, but it only added 18.6 miles of range during its 746-mile run. During my time in and around Mercedes’ facilities last week, I didn’t hear a single mention of integrating photovoltaic cells into future EVs. When I asked about it directly, it was told the automaker is working on something even better: paint that generates electricity, essentially turning the entire body of a car into a solar charging array.

While still far removed from a possible production application, Mercedes says its solar paint is already yielding promising results. Covering the entire body surface of a midsize SUV, which is about 11 square meters (118 square feet), it could potentially add 7,450 miles (12,000 km) of range annually.

That works out to about 20 miles per day (32.8 km), which would be enough to cover 62% of a typical Stuttgarter daily commute. In sunnier Los Angeles, Mercedes believes it could be enough to cover more than the average daily commute, and the rest of the electricity generated could be fed back into the network via vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging.

I Can’t Believe This Isn’t Leather

Moving away from the use of animal products in cars (especially leather) is a movement sweeping the entire industry. It has resulted in the creation of many synthetic leather alternatives that are getting better and better. Besides being kinder to animals, this has significant climate impacts as well—making animal leather is a pretty nasty business.

However, I’ve never experienced one that felt as real and as close to leather as Mercedes’ new bio-engineered substitute.

It tries to mimic leather down to the microscopic level, and even though it uses recycled plastic, its structure is very believable. I got a chance to sit in three different seats covered with this new faux leather, and had I been told it was the real stuff, I would have been fooled. It’s so similar to leather that it’s dyed in the exact same way, which gives it a distinctly leather-like smell.

Even the underside of the material does a great job of mimicking suede, although this is less believable than the outer part. Luckily, I was wearing suede shoes at the event, so I was able to compare first-hand, and it’s remarkable how similar the texture was to the real stuff.

Mercedes is also engineering this material to resist fade and not get damaged by prolonged exposure to the sun as well as the action of hand sanitizers, sunscreen, body lotions and sweat. It also needs to be waterproof, easy to clean and suitable for embossing and decorative stitching. It apparently allows the manufacturer to reduce the distance between perforations compared to real leather, making seat cooling perform even better.

Augmented Reality In Cars

Mercedes subjected us to one workshop with full virtual reality and another with augmented reality. The first involved putting on a headset in a room made of green screens, sitting on a sofa, walking to your car, and then allowing it to drive you to work autonomously. While I have experienced virtual reality before, this experience made me feel woozy for an hour after, which isn’t something I’d felt in the past, but it was nevertheless a unique way of seeing what the connected autonomous future might look like.

The mixed-reality experience was a lot more compelling. I was driven around in an EQS SUV with a pair of augmented reality glasses on, allowing me to watch videos on a virtual screen that hovered just above the dashboard. Looking to the right, I could see a map that was always there (which made the experience feel a bit like an open-world video game) and the car also had special modes that used the climate, seat massager and sound system to induce relaxation.

This second workshop started from the premise that augmented reality glasses could become very common and automakers must look at ways of seamlessly integrating them. Think of it like the future equivalent of smartphone pairing and integration.

Another way Mercedes wants to use augmented reality is to give future customers the ability to configure and customize their vehicle before they buy it. You would simply put on something like an Apple Vision Pro and see what the vehicle you’ve configured will look like via a full-lifelike representation generated right in front of you. This certainly makes sense for customers configuring high-end models with a lot of customization options.

Neuromorphic Computing For Autonomous Driving

One of the key takeaways I got from the neuromorphic computing workshop was that the energy requirement for higher levels of automated driving goes up exponentially. True autonomous driving will therefore use much more energy than today’s ADAS systems, and it’s enough to visibly negatively affect an EV’s range.

Mercedes is looking at ways to make self-driving use less juice, and one way it’s trying to do it is by using neuromorphic computing. This means it’s trying to artificially mimic the way a human brain works. They even had neuron-shaped circuit boards hooked together, and they showed us how this would work at a very basic level.

This builds on research from the Canadian University of Waterloo, and use cases include AI-powered traffic sign, lane, and other road user recognition while using a lot less electricity. It’s interesting how the best of human engineering throughout the ages has always resorted to trying to imitate nature, and now that we’re understanding how our brain works, we’re also trying to replicate it, appreciating its truly outstanding design.

EV Braking Reinvented And Battery Packs Of The Future

Two of the innovations that we previously covered in more detail are in-drive brakes and smart micro-converters. The former completely rethinks inboard brakes using a fixed water-cooled brake disc and a circular rotating brake pad. The system is completely enclosed; it promises to eliminate brake fade, brake dust particle emissions and the need for regular servicing.

While the creation of wireless micro-converters may not sound very exciting, what Mercedes says it’s able to do with them certainly is. Using them and hooking up the cells in an EV’s battery in parallel rather than in series opens up an entirely new world of possibilities for future EVs. The manufacturer said it’s even looking at multiple-chemistry battery packs that could, for instance, have both LFP and NMC cells and take advantage of their unique strengths.

Will we really see any of these technologies come to fruition? It's hard to say; automakers are always working on new and different things that may or may not pan out. But it's interesting to see where Mercedes' thinking is at these days and I'm excited to see what's next.

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