Assuming even an S-Class sedan isn’t luxurious enough for your particular tastes, Mercedes-Benz offers exhaustive personalization options through its MANUFAKTUR program. Between exterior finishes, interior trim, custom fabrication, and special paintwork, the sky is the limit. And now, with the announcement of its new Sindelfingen-based MANUFAKTUR Studio, Mercedes-Benz will be expanding its in-house capabilities even further with a technology that’s poised to revolutionize car customization forever.
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Implementing AI To Expand In-House Customization Capabilities
Up until now, the Mercedes MANUFAKTUR program has primarily relied upon a team of trained specialists using traditional production methods. Sewing, cutting, embroidering — you name it; each step is painstakingly performed by hand. It results in some undeniably beautiful work, but it also means that output isn’t exactly speedy.
At the MANUFAKTUR studio, however, Mercedez-Benz will be optimizing its workflow using artificial intelligence like Audi. From quality control to matrix production, the digitalization of the process allows for more efficiency and greater output. If a stitch is out of place or a hide appears flawed, the system will catch it — and quickly. Mercedes claims that it “enables variable individualization of up to 20 vehicles per day, regardless of the model series.”
Moreover, the MANUFAKTUR studio will incorporate autonomous guided vehicles — also known as “AGVs” — designed to ferry customer vehicles between work stations. In doing so, the Mercedes customization team can address vehicles in order of need rather than through a set cycle. The autonomous vehicles can move cars around the studio on a case-by-case basis.
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PixelPaint To Enable Revolutionary Solar Tech
Though Mercdes-Benz didn’t go into the specifics regarding its new bespoke customization offerings, it did tease a very intriguing technology: PixelPaint.
The luxury German automaker likens the process to that of an Inkjet printer, stating that it “applies high-quality paint directly onto the body of the vehicle with incredible precision” and that it thereby “allows for the application of custom patterns with the highest level of accuracy.” Put another way: there’s practically limitless personalization opportunity.
However, we’re more interested in its potential applications for electric vehicles. Mercedes-Benz also recently announced that it was hard at work developing a new kind of “sprayable solar module” that could be applied in a thin, paste-like layer. Measuring just five micrometers thick and weighing only 50 grams per square meter, Mercedes calculates that “an area of 11 square meters (equivalent to the surface of a mid-size SUV) could produce energy for up to 12,000 kilometers a year under ideal conditions.” Slap a coat of solar paint on your car, and you might not even need that at-home trickle charger.
Though efficacy would obviously be affected by factors such as sunlight intensity, shading, and location, a secondary charging solution would certainly ease owners’ range anxiety and make EVs a more practical day-to-day reality — there’s always a backup source. Additionally, Mercedes claims that because the paint is made from “non-toxic, easily available materials,” it is therefore “cheaper to produce, recyclable, and designed to work on any vehicle surface, regardless of shape or angle.”
No matter which way you spin it, PixelPaint is bound to change the automotive industry. We just hope it’s for the better with innovative solar paints rather than for the worse with outlandish exterior designs.
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