Update 5:16 p.m. ET: It seems the car is not autonomous after all. A spokesman told Mashable: "The car is operating in San Francisco for running footage and photography for future communication purposes."
That very futuristic F 015 concept vehicle from Mercedes-Benz won't be available to regular people for at least 15 years -- but it has already been spotted parked and cruising through the streets of San Francisco.
Mercedes unveiled the "Luxury in Motion" vehicle at CES in January. It's more of a symbol than anything: the type of thing Mercedes imagines we will use to commute to and from work in the future. But it's clear, at least, that Mercedes is actually working on self-driving technology.
MT @vaml09: Mercedes-Benz F015 Luxury in Motion concept car on Calif St, SF. pic.twitter.com/xZhHtLVQj9 Looks great outside the office!— Eric Chan (@mobileslate) March 4, 2015
What remains unclear is if the model on California roads is driving itself or if there is a driver behind the wheel.
spotted @nickkova A photo posted by Jake Stangel (@jakestangel) on Mar 4, 2015 at 6:57am PST
The car has strange proportions and is deliberately designed to look like something ripped from the future. It has LED lights installed on the front and back, which are the car's way of communicating with other drivers. (Blue means it is in autonomous driving mode; white means someone is controlling the vehicle.)
Mercedes-Benz thinks that vehicles such as these will be the luxury of the future -- hence Luxury in Motion -- a sort of private "cocoon" space for people to enjoy while traveling, rather than manually operating a vehicle.
Mercedes, unsurprisingly, has not yet responded to Mashable's request for comment. How mysterious.
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