Mercedes Wants You to Leave the Driving to Them in 2020
Upcoming Mercedes-Benz S-Class will use a Level 3 self-driving system which offers ‘eyes-off conditional autonomy.’
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is not just a flagship for Stuttgart. It’s also a test bed for technologies that will eventually trickle downward to the rest of the line, then appear in lesser makes and models. The latest tech, of course, is autonomous driving, which the current S-Class has in the form of the Level 2 Intelligent Drive. This system includes lane-change assist, active steering assist, and active distance assist.
What it doesn’t have, however, is the ability to allow you to take your eyes off the road while you take your hands off the wheel. Automotive News Europe reports Mercedes will soon remedy the issue with the 2020 S-Class.
Per Daimler’s head of research and future Daimler and Mercedes CEO Ola Kaellenius, Mercedes is on “the verge of jumping to Level 3, which is our target for the next S-Class. That is something that you can then buy as an option, and you can proliferate it relatively quickly into higher volumes — especially with a brand like Mercedes.”
The Level 3 system will arrive with the aforementioned next S-Class, set for a 2020 debut. The system will feature “eyes-off conditional autonomy,” and will likely beat BMW’s own iNext Level 3 system by a year. Of course, both are behind Audi’s own Level 3 system, found in the 2019 A8. Then again, just because you’re first doesn’t always mean you’re the best; Audi being first simply allows Mercedes to see what Audi is doing, then better its own system.
There are concerns about crossing each level of autonomy. The Verge says that “if a car is smart enough to drive itself in almost every setting, it might create a false sense of security that could imperil the human driver in an emergency.” Google itself abandoned its attempt at a human/machine controlled system for such a reason. Plus, regulators like the UNECE continue to debate the technology and its potential effects on driving.
For its part, Automotive News Europe says Daimler is approaching autonomy in a two-pronged approach, “evolving its Level 2 hands-off assistance systems” to the Level 3 autonomy planned for the 2020 S-Class, while shooting for Level 4 (full autonomy) with Robert Bosch in a project aimed at transportation network operators interested in robotaxis.
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