The thing I find really interesting about the Mercedes is not its current interior, nor the interior that will result out of this endeavour. Rather, it's that Mercedes is one of the first companies to realize that if you take the driving part of auto driving out of the equation, that it fundamentally changes what cars are and how we interact with them. The car becomes a living space - yet another room in our daily lives, instead of a container in which we must sit forward and pay attention to the road. Your ideal is an interior focused on relaxing. It's not much of a stretch to imagine people working in their self-driving cars, creating a space that is not unlike an office (edit: like thenewgreen). Or groups of people hanging around and drinking. In a way, it's a development that is already perfected by RV's. But instead of requiring your DD buddy Jim who drives most of the road trip, he's allowed in on the fun of doing anything else but driving.
I disagree. the magic transforming interior has been a staple of concept cars forever. Nash sold "transforming" interiors from '36 until their dissolution in '61. It's also worth pointing out that Maybachs (made by Mercedes) have had highly non-automotive back seats since 2009: The difference between the Maybach and the Mercedes concept is that the Maybach has been approved by the NTSB; this is what usually happens when concepts meet regulation.
Yeah, and to make this monstrosity work, the author specifically notes that it's bigger than a Maybach, which is a considerable feat, given that a Maybach 62 is longer than my Silverado by a whole foot. No production passenger car will ever be as big as this F015 for a multitude of reasons. The problem is that if you turn your seat around in an actual functional sedan, you're knocking knees with the person in the back seat. It's not as if car makers have been making the back seat intentionally small for these past 100 years. It's that it doesn't work. Articles like this are what happen when Wired writes about cars, because their transportation reporter seems to not know a lot about cars. (I'm not sure I've yet read a "technology" story about driverless cars that hasn't pissed me off.)The difference between the Maybach and the Mercedes concept is that the Maybach has been approved by the NTSB; this is what usually happens when concepts meet regulation.
I agree that RV's would be a good place for designers to look. They should also take cues from non-mobile spaces that are multi-purpose. IMO this Mercedes concept falls pretty short assuming the premise. I need a place where I can eat, sleep, work, and socialize. I don't see much reason there needs to be four permanent seats. Two, of them should be collapsible.