Fishy... Mercedes-Benz unveils an Avatar-themed concept car - and it has scales on the body!

Mercedes-Benz has just pulled the wraps off of a wild new concept car that was inspired by the 2009 movie Avatar called — what else? — the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR...

Designed with help from Avatar director James Cameron, this car is not the sequel that Cameron has promised. Instead, the AVTR concept car is a mix of everything that the Consumer Electronics Show is known for: outlandish styling, far-off future tech, and a tie-in with a major entertainment property. Oh, and it has scales!

That's right - the full rear end of the AVTR is covered in 33 discrete scales. Mercedes-Benz calls them, “bionic flaps” and they could be used to communicate with people outside the car... It also has special spherical wheels that Mercedes-Benz says were inspired by the “seeds of the Tree of Souls” from 2009’s Avatar. These wheels can rotate so that the AVTR can move sideways, or even diagonally.

Like all concept cars, the Vision AVTR is meant to tease out what it will be like to ride in a car of the future. And while the inside of the car is relatively sparse, Mercedes-Benz has a lot of ideas about what might be possible inside something like the AVTR.

The car draws from the hit movie's key plot points such as the connection between man, machine, and nature, as well as the dream of a society where the trio lives together in perfect symbiosis.

The Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR concept (short for, Advanced Vehicle Transformation).

It doesn't have a steering wheel! Since this futuristic car is autonomous, there’s no need for one. Instead, passengers interact with the car through an oval-shaped controller that accordions up and out of the center console to meet your hand...

Once your hand is on the controller, it (and the seats) can vibrate along with the pace of your breathing and heart rate - an example of how man and machine might literally merge...

It will feature all sorts of tech while parents will be able to monitor their children from the dashboard screen.