Who among us has not wondered what it would be like to drive a car in the future? And we're not talking about the 2028 Honda Prelude or anything, that could be interesting. No, we're talking decades, maybe even centuries beyond what we've had, where even weird concepts like the circular tire are reimagined.
Mercedes unveiled the AVTR at CES 2020 as a tie-in to the upcoming movie "Avatar: Way of the Water," which hits theaters on Dec. 16. Information To understand what this means, we have to talk to writer/director James Cameron.
Waterway is a sequel to the 2009 film Avatar, which envisioned a future in which humans deplete the Earth's natural resources. In the year 2154, they need to mine Earth and other planets, including the moon Pandora, to sustain civilization. Unfortunately for humans, a sentient race of blue-skinned humans is on Pandora, preventing us from harvesting a compound called, literally, unobtainium. These Na'vi live by nature, hunt with bows and arrows, wear loincloths, and generally prefer not to be wiped out by a heavily armed foreign mining company.
The film pioneered the use of special effects. Cameron, of "Titanic," "Aliens," and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" fame, said he wanted to make the film in the '90s but the technology had to wait a decade to catch up. We say this only in an attempt to illustrate how much the natural beauty of Pandora can affect an image. Cameron paints a world full of bioluminescence, lush vegetation and stunning scenery.
Mercedes designers wanted to make the AVTR look like it belonged in this world. Thus, the car is so imbued with organic design that it makes the 1996 Ford Taurus look like a Volvo 240. In profile, its lines are as fluid and unbroken as river pebbles, with no corners or crannies to suggest the traditional three-box shape. . . The ultra-low roofline melts into a glass bubble chamber that sits higher than the top between the wheels. As for the wheels, they are urethane pellets instead of traditional discs.
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