Small Look in To The Future: New Mercedes Van

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Mercedes-Benz Vans and Matternet have created a concept car, or as they’re calling it a Vision Van, that could change the way small packages are delivered across short distances. The Vision Van’s rooftop serves as a launch and landing pad for Matternet’s new, Matternet M2 drones.

Andreas Raptopoulos, co-founder and CEO of Matternet explained that while all of this sounds and looks like the stuff of sci-fi, the vans with integrated drone technology could be put to immediate good use where regulations allow.

The front design of the new technology is enough to transport the beholder into the distant future. The face is defined by the extremely wide windscreen, the Black Panel radiator grille with integrated LED matrix via which the Vision Van communicates with its surroundings and the progressively designed LED headlamps. The sharp contours of these elements contrast with the vehicle’s smooth surfaces, engaging in a fascinating dialogue between passion/emotion and technology/functionality. The vehicle communicates with its surroundings via LED displays on the front and rear. Warnings appear when the delivery drones take off, when the vehicle stops or when the deliverer alights, for example.

Being pared down to a maximum level of functionality the interior design comes in a highly futuristic guise. The designers have done without a steering wheel, pedals and center console in favor of a joystick, thereby creating new design options. This results in a unique interior centering on intelligent communication between driver and vehicle. It has also been possible to move the driver’s seat further forward to enlarge the vehicle’s useful floor space.

According to Daimler and Tech Crunch, The vehicle also communicates with the driver via the cabin floor. By way of a special effect LED indicators shine in the stainless steel floor, signalling to the driver whether pedestrians or cyclists are approaching, for example. At the rear wall of the driver’s cabin are the package dispenser and the driver’s info terminal providing all the relevant information on the delivery process. This terminal serves as a means of communication between the Vision Van’s autonomously functioning system environment and the driver, who is able to concentrate fully on the manual delivery task at hand. It also performs the role of a central control unit to interlink the intelligent vehicle, the automated systems and the information relating to the delivery orders to be carried out.