The Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR Triggers Our Trypophobia

A car inspired by Avatar the movie looks like something from a fever dream!

This ghastly, yet beautiful, concept from Mercedes-Benz somehow manages to be a treat for our eyes and at the same time, send shivers down our spines.

The design team have really outdone themselves this time, achieving a similar effect that a mullet has but in a car; business in the front and a vomit-inducing party at the back

In a strange collaboration, Mercedes-Benz took inspiration from the blockbuster film ‘Avatar’ in creating a weird and wonderful concept car called the VISION AVTR. The name ‘AVTR’ is not just the name of the film spelt incorrectly but actually is an abbreviation for ‘advanced vehicle transformation’.

The VISION AVTR, like the film itself, demonstrates an interaction between human, machine and nature and is said to be ‘inspired by the world of Pandora’ which is the fictional world in with Avatar (2009) was set and can be seen mimicked in the background of these photos.

There are a range of absolutely wacky features in this car that people are likely going to look back at in 80 years time and laugh at, just at we do at concept cars of the 60s.

For instance, there is four-wheel steering that doesn’t just help with tight turning but also helps with ‘crab walking’ where the car looks like it’s drifting because the car is travelling sideways at an angle whilst moving forward.

There’s no steering wheel in the car and no buttons or…well, anything. Just four seats and a very strange button/joystick/palm rest in the middle of the two front seats. This odd omnidirectional pad is how you drive the car. Move it forward to drive, backwards to break and if you twist it whilst going forward, it will start doing the awkward ‘crab walk’ that kind of looks like you’re playing a glitched racing game.

There are a lot of lights which do truly look like a spectacle to remember, much like the scene in Avatar where the forest illuminates. The wheels are an all-tyre design that also have lights on them and are based on the Woodsprites (the floating jellyfish-like creatures from the film) and also function as the side indicator lights!

Of course, the most eye-catching feature on this ‘car’ if you can call it that, are the flaps at the back. Around 30 of these holes decorate the rear of the car and the flaps covering them can lift and pitch in different directions to display some sort of emotion, as if the vehicle were a scaly animal rather than a just a machine.

Of course, I can’t help think of all the trypophobia (a fear of small holes in things) photos that we’ve seen when looking at this strange vehicle. Something about those holes on the back just makes me feel gross.

Does the VISION AVTR gross you out too? Let us know in the comments!

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