World premiere Vision URBANETIC, Kopenhagen 2018
:In view of the modern challenges to urban mobility – with larger cities, more inhabitants and more traffic – urban transport is becoming more complex. That’s why Mercedes-Benz Vans dared to take a bold look at the future and built VISION URBANETIC, an innovative solution for the public transport of the future. VISION URBANETIC is a mobility concept that is relevant for both commercial applications and smart cities. But how do guests of a static presentation understand the advantages of such a mobility concept? With a clou – as OSK showed at the world premiere.
In a city of the future, the battery-powered and completely autonomous concept van would be on the road around the clock, serving both as a delivery vehicle and as a people mover. Thanks to exchangeable modules, the van can also easily change its superstructure according to requirements.
The goal was clearly defined: The complex concept vehicle and the vision for a holistic ecosystem should be presented comprehensively in order to bring all functions to one point.
The challenge: How do you present a mobility concept that not only involves the correct use of the available space, but also changes over the course of the day – in other words, over time? And: How can such a concept really be experienced when the world premiere itself is tied to a fixed (static) exhibition location?
The answer lies in science – more precisely, in Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Accordingly, space and time are interconnected. It can be better understood with a quotation from H.G. Wells from his book „The Time Machine“: „There are really four dimensions, three which we call the three planes of Space, and a fourth, Time.“
Therefore the guests in Copenhagen went on a journey through all four dimensions in order to „experience“ the holistic approach of Vision URBANETIC.
The first step was a journey of knowledge: the guests were sensitized to the challenges of mobility in workshops. This was followed by a journey through time. Journalists and multipliers took a seat on a stage where they accompanied the Van concept through its day. In a time lapse of only ten minutes, the guests took part in the transformation of the concept van in order to understand the various functions. They saw a delivery van at night and a people mover during the day and again a delivery van in the evening. But as Einstein taught us, time and space are connected. We cannot comprehend time without space. That’s why the guests were on a third journey, through space.
So while the guests were watching the van’s transformation in fast motion, they suddenly realized that they were moving themselves: they were sitting on a revolving stage on which they were moving through the hours of a day. Just like a clock.
