Does the Mercedes Concept Car (F 015) Represent the Future of Transportation?

Since the Mercedes-Benz F-015 is an electric vehicle (with both batteries and fuel cells), one might think it would have EV fans dancing for joy about this incredibly futuristic car. And the language that Mercedes uses is certainly lavish enough: The result is more like a carriage than a rocket ship. Passengers “inhabit” the Mercedes-Benz F 015 rather than drive it, and the interior has the visual cues and physical features of a mobile office rather than the usual jet-fighter cockpit.

Personally, I’m betting against all this extravagant use of interior space for even the wealthy (actually, extremely wealthy) consumers to “inhabit.” If we’re speculating as to what the ideal future of transportation looks like, I see something far less energy intensive, in terms of both building and powering our means of conveyance.

We live in Southern California in the year 2015—and I still drive my car to Los Angeles International Airport when I fly out of here. Why? We don’t have public transportation to take me to the one place in this part of the country that has the most obvious requirement to hook into a train system.

I don’t want to take a space “carriage” to LAX (at what I’m sure will be a fabulously expensive price, all-told), worry about parking and getting a shuttle to the actual airport.  I want to take a train, like they do in most cities whose managers have given careful thought as how to deal with traffic, pollution, and convenience for the customer.