International CES 2015: Luxury in Motion

German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz has unveiled an autonomous concept car that works as a living room on wheels at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The F015 Luxury in Motion – as mentioned in our Consumer Lifestyle team's "technoluxury" predictions for 2015 – is a self-driving luxury saloon that offers passengers a lounge-like "private sphere" to retreat to. Its four rotating lounge chairs allow passengers to sit face to face, enabling them to communicate easily – or cocoon themselves.

Wall-mounted displays – embedded with sensors that recognise hands, enabling gesture control – make the interior a "digital living space", where passengers can interact intuitively with the car.

The concept is part of Mercedes-Benz's wider vision for the city of the future beyond 2030, where autonomous driving will become a given. "As drivers are relieved of work and stresses in situations in which driving is not enjoyable, the time gained while in their car takes on a whole new quality," the company said in a statement.

Matthias Brock, a spokesman for Mercedes-Benz, told Stylus: "In the future, cities will become more and more crowded, and traffic will become more and more dense. Time and private space will become the luxury goods of the future." For more on the changing shape of luxury, see Luxury Recalibrated.

  International CES – the world's largest consumer electronics show – runs until January 9 2015. Look out for more detailed coverage of this year's event, coming soon.