Hydrogen Fuel Cell powered cars were all the rage a few years back before Tesla took the electric vehicle market by storm. The Hydrogen Fuel Cell electric cars have largely been replaced by lithium-ion powered ones as of late. Only a handful of car models is left sporting the technology now.
Mercedes-Benz once made a very interesting ad campaign for their F-Cell technology. The F-Cell cars had zero carbon emissions which therefore had an invisible carbon footprint. To highlight this zero emission technology, they made a car that was invisible; well, almost invisible.
The car you see in the video is covered by LED panels on one side. The LEDs are used to project images taken by an onboard camera on the other side to help the car blend to the surrounding. The “invisible” car highlights the zero emissions theme of the F-Cell technology. The viral video is one of the most amazing automobile campaigns done.
The car was actually driven through the streets of Germany and people were astounded at the technology. The only downside to this car is that only one side of the car is “invisible”. View the car from any other angle and you will see the car clearly. An upside would be that you basically have a big TV screen on one side.
The “invisible” technology has found itself used in military applications. The LED panels are now used in concept military vehicles such as tanks and helicopters to make them invisible to Infrared. They can even project images to make tanks look like a harmless car. They are calling the technology “adaptive camouflage”.
The Mercedes-Benz F-Cell technology has been largely shelved in favour of newer technologies. The video though shows technology that we might see in the future. A car covered in LED panels to not be invisible but be more visible to pedestrians would be very useful. It might reduce head-on collisions and pedestrians getting run over.
Imagine parking your car anywhere and not worry about the parking ticket, too!
Images via DailyMail
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