 Hey everybody, this is Sean from The Verge, and I am standing here in front of what's probably going to be the most ridiculous thing we see here all week at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, which is a Mercedes-Benz concept car inspired by the 2009 film and soon-to-be-franchised Avatar. Honestly, there's a lot. I don't really know where to start with this car. It is a concept car first and foremost, which means that this thing is not going to be on the road anytime soon, and it's really meant to be a showcase for a lot of different technologies that Mercedes-Benz has spent some of the last couple years working on, whether that's autonomous vehicle technology, electric vehicle technology, or human-machine interface interaction, user experience inside the cockpit kind of technology. But first, I think we should just talk about the look of the thing. There are 33 bionic flaps or scales going all the way up the rear end of the car that move up and down, and Mercedes-Benz says they could potentially be used as a way of communicating with maybe other vehicles on the road, pedestrians who are crossing around the car. One of the other really wild things about this car is that it has these sort of spherical wheels that can move in multiple different directions. They enable the car to move not only sideways but diagonal. We got a little bit of a taste of that when the car rolled out here on stage tonight. The wheels on the car were supposedly inspired by the seeds from the big tree in the movie Avatar, and that's not the only thing. There are a lot of other touches on this car that are supposedly drawing inspiration from the film, and in fact, it wasn't just inspiration. Mercedes-Benz went and worked with some of the people behind Avatar. Like pretty much every other automaker on the planet right now, Mercedes-Benz and its parent company, Daimler, have laid out pretty big ambitious goals for reducing their carbon footprint over the next 20 or so years. That's really where I think the inspiration actually came from from this car. The company wanted to present a concept that was going to reflect how they are thinking about these green, sustainable technologies. They decided to make this car, which is an electric concept car. It has sort of vegan leather on the inside. It has recycled plastics used on the interior materials. I think as they started to work out some of those ideas and cohere them into a concept car, there must have been some partnership struck with the people behind Avatar. There are themes that run through that movie and the upcoming movies about protecting the natural resources around you. Apparently, Mel did well enough for them to design an entire Avatar car, or have a car, if you will, and I will. The inside of the car is another really kind of wild-looking piece of tech, which is this control unit which comes up out of the center console. Sort of accordions up to meet your hand. According to Mercedes-Benz, it will vibrate along with your heartbeat and breathing. I got to try the tech earlier today. It's still a very concept version. It's not actually really working. It wasn't really actually mimicking my breathing, but the thing did come out of the center console. It was sort of vibrating a little bit. The seats were vibrating too. That's supposed to be something that you could use to kind of control the car. It's really the only way you can interact with this car because there are no buttons. There's no steering wheel. There's just one giant display that stretches up from the center console and into the windshield. In many ways, this is kind of like the ultimate consumer electronic show concept car announcement. It hits pretty much all of the beats that we typically see automakers pick at. We have futuristic tech that doesn't really actually work today, but may work someday in the future. We have outrageous design with lights coming out of the wheels and scales on the back of the car. We have really ambitious goals and ambitious claims about what this car is going to mean for the company that are really hard to check right now in the present. To top that all off, we have a partnership with an entertainment company and a massive piece of IP that people are really familiar with. It puts all of those things together into one package that is admittedly pretty radical. I certainly wouldn't mind a drive, but it's definitely the most ridiculous thing we're going to see this week. Thanks so much for watching. If you want to see more weird tech, amazing tech, bad tech that we've seen here at the Consumer Electronics Show, make sure to go to YouTube.com slash Diverge and click subscribe. Thanks for watching.
 Hey everybody, this is Sean from The Verge, and I am standing here in front of what's
 probably going to be the most ridiculous thing we see here all week at the 2020 Consumer
 Electronics Show, which is a Mercedes-Benz concept car inspired by the 2009 film and
 soon-to-be-franchised Avatar.
 Honestly, there's a lot.
 I don't really know where to start with this car.
 It is a concept car first and foremost, which means that this thing is not going to be on
 the road anytime soon, and it's really meant to be a showcase for a lot of different technologies
 that Mercedes-Benz has spent some of the last couple years working on, whether that's autonomous
 vehicle technology, electric vehicle technology, or human-machine interface interaction, user
 experience inside the cockpit kind of technology.
 But first, I think we should just talk about the look of the thing.
 There are 33 bionic flaps or scales going all the way up the rear end of the car that
 move up and down, and Mercedes-Benz says they could potentially be used as a way of communicating
 with maybe other vehicles on the road, pedestrians who are crossing around the car.
 One of the other really wild things about this car is that it has these sort of spherical
 wheels that can move in multiple different directions.
 They enable the car to move not only sideways but diagonal.
 We got a little bit of a taste of that when the car rolled out here on stage tonight.
 The wheels on the car were supposedly inspired by the seeds from the big tree in the movie
 Avatar, and that's not the only thing.
 There are a lot of other touches on this car that are supposedly drawing inspiration from
 the film, and in fact, it wasn't just inspiration.
 Mercedes-Benz went and worked with some of the people behind Avatar.
 Like pretty much every other automaker on the planet right now, Mercedes-Benz and its
 parent company, Daimler, have laid out pretty big ambitious goals for reducing their carbon
 footprint over the next 20 or so years.
 That's really where I think the inspiration actually came from from this car.
 The company wanted to present a concept that was going to reflect how they are thinking
 about these green, sustainable technologies.
 They decided to make this car, which is an electric concept car.
 It has sort of vegan leather on the inside.
 It has recycled plastics used on the interior materials.
 I think as they started to work out some of those ideas and cohere them into a concept
 car, there must have been some partnership struck with the people behind Avatar.
 There are themes that run through that movie and the upcoming movies about protecting the
 natural resources around you.
 Apparently, Mel did well enough for them to design an entire Avatar car, or have a car,
 if you will, and I will.
 The inside of the car is another really kind of wild-looking piece of tech, which is this
 control unit which comes up out of the center console.
 Sort of accordions up to meet your hand.
 According to Mercedes-Benz, it will vibrate along with your heartbeat and breathing.
 I got to try the tech earlier today.
 It's still a very concept version.
 It's not actually really working.
 It wasn't really actually mimicking my breathing, but the thing did come out of the center console.
 It was sort of vibrating a little bit.
 The seats were vibrating too.
 That's supposed to be something that you could use to kind of control the car.
 It's really the only way you can interact with this car because there are no buttons.
 There's no steering wheel.
 There's just one giant display that stretches up from the center console and into the windshield.
 In many ways, this is kind of like the ultimate consumer electronic show concept car announcement.
 It hits pretty much all of the beats that we typically see automakers pick at.
 We have futuristic tech that doesn't really actually work today, but may work someday
 in the future.
 We have outrageous design with lights coming out of the wheels and scales on the back of
 the car.
 We have really ambitious goals and ambitious claims about what this car is going to mean
 for the company that are really hard to check right now in the present.
 To top that all off, we have a partnership with an entertainment company and a massive
 piece of IP that people are really familiar with.
 It puts all of those things together into one package that is admittedly pretty radical.
 I certainly wouldn't mind a drive, but it's definitely the most ridiculous thing we're
 going to see this week.
 Thanks so much for watching.
 If you want to see more weird tech, amazing tech, bad tech that we've seen here at the
 Consumer Electronics Show, make sure to go to YouTube.com slash Diverge and click subscribe.
 Thanks for watching.