Mercedes-Benz Tested a Joystick Control System in the F200 Imagination?

Mercedes-Benz developed a concept car back in 1996 that will have gamers today both eager and hesitant to take it for a test drive. The F200 Imagination replaced the traditional steering wheel with a joystick controller and recently sold for a reported $10 million.

 It's Gary Numan singing "Cars" a cappella while riding an Indian elephant. Come on, people, describe it to me. It's a Mercedes that is driven with joysticks. It is known as the "F-200 Imagination" idea, and from the outside, it appears to be... pretty well done. But then again, it would be given that this is a working prototype and not just a non-functional mule pushed out to attract crowds at motor shows.

Despite their somewhat obscene moniker, joysticks are among the coolest objects ever. They are found in fighter jets. They exist on spacecraft. When the folks weren't there to be terrified, we could play Barbarian: Ultimate Warrior on our cousin's Amiga in the early 1990s.

Automobile manufacturers didn't only try to reinvent the wheel with the F 200; Saab and Oldsmobile both experimented with joystick-operated controls, and, well, it seems to have worked out rather well for both brands. which unquestionably remain active. Yup. There is nothing to see.

That we would keep looking at things that are incredibly straightforward, intuitive, universally understood, and adopted and wondering whether we couldn't add complexity and technology to the mix. Then there are a couple points that are less caustic and considerably more specific.

Joysticks are much more compact and perform just as well for the 0.1% of the time we are without a computer driver if our totally autonomous future ever materializes (yeah, right). For instance, your Johnny Cab driver could not understand your heavy Austrian accent's message of urgency if you're running from an armed Michael Ironside while wearing a wet towel around your head.

It anticipated the widespread use of drive-by-wire technology in a larger sense, which extends to steer-by-wire in the Infiniti Q50. And the brand Infiniti appears to have greatly benefited from that. Yup. There is nothing to see.

Well, the F-200 concept is dual control because there are a total of four joysticks. similar to a garbage truck! Hm. I doubt that comparison would make Mercedes very happy.

Additionally, there are 12 cylinders, organized in a V, with a total displacement of six liters. And if you haven't seen it, trust us when we say that the 6.0-liter Mercedes-Benz V12 is a sight to behold.

Additionally, there is almost no likelihood that you will ever drive it. So, um, let's continue. There is nothing to see.

That much depends on your definition of "work." Yes, everything worked perfectly if by "work" you mean "something that can run around a controlled test facility without spontaneously igniting after 10 minutes." You might need to moderate your expectations if your definition of labor is "went out into the world, took it over in a single leap, and revolutionized how humans drive cars forevermore." If you define work, like us, as "sitting down at a computer in your trackpants and trying to create something slightly humorous," you'll feel a warm flush of unity that comes close to, but falls short of, dispelling the icy reality of our present circumstance.

 Going on, Mercedes adopted the joystick concept and went with it once more, installing it on an R129 SL, a car that is simply magnificent to do anything to or with. With the exception of when it starred as a car in that godawful Liar, Liar movie. If we have to choose between watching nothing at all and that Hallmark-with-slapstick atrocity, we'll go with nothing.

Making "negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full" comments while you weave through traffic while the Top Gun Anthem is playing on the stereo. We simply... see, Top Gun was just a little too darn fantastic as an advertisement for joining the military, so our initial career goal was to train to be fighter pilots. We made the obvious decision to become motoring writers when it became plainly clear that a) arithmetic is hard and b) being too tall for a cockpit is not optional. But even after all these years, we still enjoy using joysticks to operate machines.

 The main reason for so many failures is that no one wanted them. Humans are habitual creatures in addition to being generally irrational and self-centered beings. You can bet your bottom dollar and top drachma that we won't just switch to something new for the sake of changing if we already have something that works.

The popularity of digital cameras can be attributed to the elimination of the need to drop off rolls of film for the clerks at camera shops to examine. Because a touchscreen was used instead of a jumble of buttons and a small screen, the iPhone was successful. And because you could, well, watch whatever you wanted in total privacy, huge displays on phones took off. Nope. There is nothing to see.