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Mercedes-Benz Beat Tesla to Cheap, Hands-Free Driving

34 points by jbredeche 3y ago

josefresco 3y ago
A comment on Ars Technica: "It is important to note that they are using the UNECE Level 3 certification loophole which technically demands that the company takes responsibility, but sets the minimum intervention interval for the driver at zero seconds for the under 60km/h case. That means, as long as the car exits its autonomous mode before a crash, the driver is instantly fully responsible. It's level 2 in all but name. There are also practically no certification or safety requirements, hence why several manufacturers have announced their gimped level 2 system as level 3 when under 60km/h, among them Honda in 2021 and BMW in 2022, all of course claiming to be the worlds first." https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-autonomous-driving-system-takes-over-in-heavy-traffic/?comments=1&comments-page=1 https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-...
- tyrfing 3y ago
  Here's what MB says in their press release: > If the driver fails to take back control even after increasingly urgent prompting and expiration of the takeover time (e.g., due to a severe health problem), the system brakes the vehicle to a standstill in a controlled manner while engaging the hazard warning lights. From the CA DMV: > Mercedes-Benz is the fourth company to receive an autonomous vehicle deployment permit in California and the first authorized to sell or lease vehicles with an automated driving system to the public.
- rtkwe 3y ago
  I can't tell from that if it's stating what MB is actually doing or if that's just a technical loophole in the UNECE definition.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  Said Ars comment comes from someone whose history is openly pro Tesla, pro Musk and denigrating of any competitors, offers no sources, and is in contradiction to numerous other sources.
  - toomuchtodo 3y ago
    As opposed to Anti Tesla folks who are impressed by MB's (who doesn't make EVs in any meaningful quantity) PR puff piece? Great, they're on track for 150k EV sales this year. Tesla will sell ~2M units, 4x total Mercedes Benz annual volume. We get it, "Tesla Bad." They are the only automaker selling EVs at volume besides Chineses automakers (which are limited to the Chinese auto market), and they are what consumers are preferring (with the Model Y being a best seller in various large markets). You might not agree with consumer preferences, but their dollars and how they vote with them are what matter, while regulators are sufficiently tolerant of Tesla's various Autopilot driver assist flavors (AP1, AP2, AP2.5, Enhanced Autopilot with Auto Lane Change) as well as their Full Self Driving beta to not require they be pulled from the US consumer fleet. One can be "Elon musk is not a decent human being" but also "Tesla makes EVs people will trip over themselves to buy, and we need as many popular EVs as possible to contribute towards solving for the transportation emissions component of climate change." PR pieces do not destroy demand for petroleum or reduce combustion emissions, EVs shipped do.
    - FireBeyond 3y ago
      > regulators are sufficiently tolerant of Tesla's various Autopilot driver assist flavors (AP1, AP2, AP2.5, Enhanced Autopilot with Auto Lane Change) as well as their Full Self Driving beta to not require they be pulled from the US consumer fleet. Regulators are also sufficiently tolerant of MB's efforts (sorry, "puffery"): > currently certified for use in California and Nevada Yes, MB (who I have no love for) is ramping up EV manufacture. Tesla beat everyone to the punch. > Tesla will sell ~2M units, 4x total Mercedes Benz annual volume. Huh, going to disagree there: > 2022 (January to December): Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars delivered 2,043,900 vehicles
      - toomuchtodo 3y ago
        > 2022 (January to December): Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars delivered 2,043,900 vehicles I stand corrected, and appreciate the correction as I strive for accuracy. My stat was wrong, pulling from a quarter vs the entire year. Tesla shipped almost as many EVs as Mercedes Benz shipped entirely, vs 4x.
- Veserv 3y ago
  Can you please fact check that statement? No source or quote was provided and I see no mention in the regulation. Here is the regulation they are talking about: https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/ECE-TRANS-WP.29-2022-59r1e.pdf https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/ECE-TRANS-WP.2... On page 17, Section 5.4 they discuss: "Transition demand and system operation during transition phase". In Section 5.4.3: "During the transition phase the system shall continue to operate." In Section 5.4.3.2: "During the transition phase, the transition demand shall be escalated latest after 4 s after the start of the transition demand." In Section 5.4.4: "A transition demand shall only be terminated once the system is deactivated or a minimum risk manoeuvre has started." In Section 5.4.4.1: "In case the driver is not responding to a transition demand by deactivating the system (either as described in paragraph 6.2.4., or 6.2.5.), a minimum risk manoeuvre shall be started, earliest 10 s after the start of the transition demand." In Section 5.5: "Minimum Risk Manoeuvre" In Section 5.5.1: "The minimum risk manoeuvre shall bring the vehicle to a standstill unless the system is deactivated by the driver during the manoeuvre." In Section 5.5.3: "A minimum risk manoeuvre shall only be terminated once the system is deactivated or the system has brought the vehicle to a standstill." In Section 6.2.4: "It shall be possible to manually deactivate..." In Section 6.2.5: "In addition to paragraph 6.2.4, the system shall not be deactivated by any driver input other than those described below..." In Section 6.2.5.1.: "Deactivation by input to driving controls..." In Section 6.2.5.2: "Deactivation during an ongoing transition demand or an ongoing minimum risk manoeuvre. In case a transition demand or minimum risk manoeuvre is on-going, the system shall only be deactivated: (a) As defined in paragraph 6.2.5.1. or (b) Upon detection that the driver has taken hold of the steering control as a response to the transition demand or minimum risk manoeuvre and provided the system confirms the driver is attentive as defined in paragraph 6.3.1.1." So, the car remains in control during hand-off until a driver actively takes back control. The hand-off process must last a minimum of 10 seconds where the car is expected to operate as normal. In the event that the driver does not take control, the car is required to automatically come to a stop without relinquishing control. At no point can the car automatically transfer control to the driver except after fully executing a minimum risk manoeuvre and coming to a halt, or if a emergency manoeuvre is required (at which point the emergency manoeuvre system is in control).
nixass 3y ago
Tesla is a car for people who know nothing about cars and are easily impressed by buzzwords they can then use over a drink with friends. They were driving 2000 Kia and now suddenly they parrot Musk's words and have no idea about anything they just said.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  Elon Musk was the best snake oil salesman in the world.
  - CamperBob2 3y ago
    Yeah, you're right. We should've left the EV revolution up to General Motors to kick off. They were almost ready, they swear!
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      Ah, yes, please hit me with your invisible straw men. Elon Musk didn't invent EVs or Tesla, he bought it. Not saying Tesla is bad, but its market value was completely pumped up by Elon's tactics of turning $TSLA into a hype driven speculative asset like Dogecoin versus gaining it from achieving sales succes on its own.
      - CamperBob2 3y ago
        (Shrug) They shipped a lot of electric cars. What have you done lately?
        CamperBob2 3y ago
        Yeah, I thought so.
      - bdcravens 3y ago
Svip 3y ago
A Mercedes S-Class ain't cheap. But hasn't this been available for a year in Germany?
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  Plenty of cars have a "traffic jam pilot" feature that seems indistinguishable from this. I don't get the hype behind this announcement.
  - rtkwe 3y ago
    It's going the step from being a "driver assist" feature where the driver is liable for things to an autonomous hands off feature with MB being liable if it crashes while you're using it.
  - simion314 3y ago
    >Plenty of cars have a "traffic jam pilot" feature that seems indistinguishable from this. I don't get the hype behind this announcement. The difference is that the company is putting their money behind their promises. It is like you want to buy a product , one company gives you 5 years warranty and the other offers 0 days warranty but they show you some ads and cherry-picked stats.
jjoonathan 3y ago
> for use on public freeways The press release [1] seems to indicate that this is just for freeways, which I thought was the easy case that has been mostly solved (in a technological sense) for years by a bunch of different players. [1] https://media.mbusa.com/releases/release-1d2a8750850333f086a722043c01a0c3-conditionally-automated-driving-mercedes-benz-drive-pilot-further-expands-us-availability-to-the-countrys-most-populous-state-through-california-certification https://media.mbusa.com/releases/release-1d2a8750850333f086a...
- hellotheretoday 3y ago
  I think the difference here is assumption of liability so you won’t have as many nannycams and nag screens. My partners Subaru with adaptive cruise control and lane assist can essentially navigate the scenario they describe without a driver. However, if the car detects your eyes are off the road for more it gives you a nag prompt and more importantly if it detects your hands are off the wheel for more than a few seconds it turns off the assists. The hand detection isn’t just a simple sensor either, it checks for steering wheel inputs from the user and if it doesn’t get any it assumes you’ve let go (which is annoying if you’re driving down a long straight road) I assume this ultimately is just an expensive way to relax these requirements?
saberience 3y ago
So can I set my starting point in LA and drive to New York fully using Mercedes self driving? How long would it take to do this drive and how many interventions would I need to do?
rtkwe 3y ago
It's important to note that the Drive Pilot is currently limited pretty heavily in the conditions it will operate in (<40MPH, has a vehicle in front to follow, restricted to premapped routes, dry and clear roads with clear detectable lane markers) it's still a big step to go up to level 3 and Mercedes is assuming legal liability. I think Musk's insistence on a camera only system will ultimately be a huge anchor around Tesla's neck for self driving.
- nocoiner 3y ago
  If, as another commenter said, this is only for use on freeways, I’m not sure how than is any different from the system in my 2021 BMW. Is MB’s assumption of liability the only thing pushing it up to L3? Otherwise the capabilities sound identical.
  - rtkwe 3y ago
    Liability and legally endorsing a complete hands off driving interaction are the big differences. Cars have kind of been able to do this for a while but you're supposed to keep complete control of the vehicle with hands on the wheel (usually actively monitored with nags if it things you've taken your hands off). While your BMW's adaptive cruise control (or whatever BMW named their similar system) plus lane keep could basically do this it's legally just a driver assist where the Drive Pilot is taking the big step of being in legal control of the car.
    - saberience 3y ago
      I don’t care about the legal liability I care about the actual features and capability of the system. If this thing can’t go faster than 50kph then it’s not better than my Honda civic from 2020, literally. I hate how this has gotten advertised as way better than a Tesla but actually it’s much much worse than a Tesla in terms of its actual ability to drive in all conditions.
      - rtkwe 3y ago
        It's more of a technical step forward than a feature step forward true but that's pretty significant still, IMO the gap between "driver assist" and full self driving is full of things like this. Adaptive cruise control + lane keeping + automatic lane change is, from a driver perspective, feature wise 80% of the way to highway self driving but they're all limited by the requirements that they're not hands-off features. That last gap of fully letting the user remove their hands from the wheel, explicitly, and assuming liability is putting a lot more trust in the system than your 2020 Civic. If they were as cavalier about driver safety and liability as Tesla they probably could have looser restrictions on it and just push the job of being a perfectly alert safety driver onto their customers..
hnburnsy 3y ago
https://group.mercedes-benz.com/innovation/product-innovation/autonomous-driving/drive-pilot-nevada.html https://group.mercedes-benz.com/innovation/product-innovatio... >On suitable freeway sections and where there is high traffic density, DRIVE PILOT can offer to take over the dynamic driving task, up to speeds of 40 mph...DRIVE PILOT available in the U.S. for model year 2024 S‑Class and EQS Sedan models, with the first cars delivered to customers in late 2023 So very limited driving scenarios (essentially only stop and go traffic on freeways) and extremely limited product availability.
- hnburnsy 3y ago
  According to this it won't change lanes either and costs $2,500... https://electrek.co/2023/09/27/hands-off-with-the-first-true-hands-free-car-in-the-us-and-its-not-tesla/ https://electrek.co/2023/09/27/hands-off-with-the-first-true... >This brings up a potential ownership consideration: You might want to keep the navigation lady’s voice turned on to warn you if you’re going to miss your exit, as one thing level 3 won’t do is change lanes. >The system will be available on Mercedes’ EQS and S-Class (but who would want that one? it runs on gas, yuck) in the US later this year. Significant hardware is required and can’t be retrofitted, so you’ll need to get a level 3-capable car on purchase. The hardware itself won’t change the vehicle’s price, but using the system requires a subscription, which costs $2,500 for the first year. Mercedes hasn’t yet committed to prices for subsequent years.
  - rtkwe 3y ago
    There's a second more Tesla like system that operates at high speeds that can do that. The Ars-ticle seems much better and it's not stuck behind Bloomberg's paywall. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-autonomous-driving-system-takes-over-in-heavy-traffic/#:~:text=the%20big%20sedan%20smoothly%20moved%20into%20the%20left%20lane%20to%20pass https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
polartx 3y ago
“Cheap”
jiveturkey 3y ago
Cheap? Isn't Tesla $12k perpetual and MB is $2500/year? (and will obviously have annual or biannual increases) The service lifetime of even an ICE car is over 10 years. I can't read the actual article because the paywall bypasser's I've tried all use a captcha that additionally have tracking and I can't get through them.
panick21_ 3y ago
Has any company gotten more PR out of more basic technology? Literally 100s of articles hyping MB for tech that's not particularity useful.
spikels 3y ago
“$2,500 annual subscription” seems pricey for such a limited product but it’s an expensive car for wealth buyers. Still good to see car companies push out improvements like this. Next version should be more capable, then the next version… Eventually we start to reduce the 1.3 million deaths and 10s of millions of injuries every year.

34 points by jbredeche 3y ago

A comment on Ars Technica: "It is important to note that they are using the UNECE Level 3 certification loophole which technically demands that the company takes responsibility, but sets the minimum intervention interval for the driver at zero seconds for the under 60km/h case. That means, as long as the car exits its autonomous mode before a crash, the driver is instantly fully responsible. It's level 2 in all but name. There are also practically no certification or safety requirements, hence why several manufacturers have announced their gimped level 2 system as level 3 when under 60km/h, among them Honda in 2021 and BMW in 2022, all of course claiming to be the worlds first." https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-autonomous-driving-system-takes-over-in-heavy-traffic/?comments=1&comments-page=1 https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-...

tyrfing 3y ago
Here's what MB says in their press release: > If the driver fails to take back control even after increasingly urgent prompting and expiration of the takeover time (e.g., due to a severe health problem), the system brakes the vehicle to a standstill in a controlled manner while engaging the hazard warning lights. From the CA DMV: > Mercedes-Benz is the fourth company to receive an autonomous vehicle deployment permit in California and the first authorized to sell or lease vehicles with an automated driving system to the public.
rtkwe 3y ago
I can't tell from that if it's stating what MB is actually doing or if that's just a technical loophole in the UNECE definition.
FireBeyond 3y ago
Said Ars comment comes from someone whose history is openly pro Tesla, pro Musk and denigrating of any competitors, offers no sources, and is in contradiction to numerous other sources.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  As opposed to Anti Tesla folks who are impressed by MB's (who doesn't make EVs in any meaningful quantity) PR puff piece? Great, they're on track for 150k EV sales this year. Tesla will sell ~2M units, 4x total Mercedes Benz annual volume. We get it, "Tesla Bad." They are the only automaker selling EVs at volume besides Chineses automakers (which are limited to the Chinese auto market), and they are what consumers are preferring (with the Model Y being a best seller in various large markets). You might not agree with consumer preferences, but their dollars and how they vote with them are what matter, while regulators are sufficiently tolerant of Tesla's various Autopilot driver assist flavors (AP1, AP2, AP2.5, Enhanced Autopilot with Auto Lane Change) as well as their Full Self Driving beta to not require they be pulled from the US consumer fleet. One can be "Elon musk is not a decent human being" but also "Tesla makes EVs people will trip over themselves to buy, and we need as many popular EVs as possible to contribute towards solving for the transportation emissions component of climate change." PR pieces do not destroy demand for petroleum or reduce combustion emissions, EVs shipped do.
  - FireBeyond 3y ago
    > regulators are sufficiently tolerant of Tesla's various Autopilot driver assist flavors (AP1, AP2, AP2.5, Enhanced Autopilot with Auto Lane Change) as well as their Full Self Driving beta to not require they be pulled from the US consumer fleet. Regulators are also sufficiently tolerant of MB's efforts (sorry, "puffery"): > currently certified for use in California and Nevada Yes, MB (who I have no love for) is ramping up EV manufacture. Tesla beat everyone to the punch. > Tesla will sell ~2M units, 4x total Mercedes Benz annual volume. Huh, going to disagree there: > 2022 (January to December): Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars delivered 2,043,900 vehicles
    - toomuchtodo 3y ago
      > 2022 (January to December): Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars delivered 2,043,900 vehicles I stand corrected, and appreciate the correction as I strive for accuracy. My stat was wrong, pulling from a quarter vs the entire year. Tesla shipped almost as many EVs as Mercedes Benz shipped entirely, vs 4x.
Veserv 3y ago
Can you please fact check that statement? No source or quote was provided and I see no mention in the regulation. Here is the regulation they are talking about: https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/ECE-TRANS-WP.29-2022-59r1e.pdf https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/ECE-TRANS-WP.2... On page 17, Section 5.4 they discuss: "Transition demand and system operation during transition phase". In Section 5.4.3: "During the transition phase the system shall continue to operate." In Section 5.4.3.2: "During the transition phase, the transition demand shall be escalated latest after 4 s after the start of the transition demand." In Section 5.4.4: "A transition demand shall only be terminated once the system is deactivated or a minimum risk manoeuvre has started." In Section 5.4.4.1: "In case the driver is not responding to a transition demand by deactivating the system (either as described in paragraph 6.2.4., or 6.2.5.), a minimum risk manoeuvre shall be started, earliest 10 s after the start of the transition demand." In Section 5.5: "Minimum Risk Manoeuvre" In Section 5.5.1: "The minimum risk manoeuvre shall bring the vehicle to a standstill unless the system is deactivated by the driver during the manoeuvre." In Section 5.5.3: "A minimum risk manoeuvre shall only be terminated once the system is deactivated or the system has brought the vehicle to a standstill." In Section 6.2.4: "It shall be possible to manually deactivate..." In Section 6.2.5: "In addition to paragraph 6.2.4, the system shall not be deactivated by any driver input other than those described below..." In Section 6.2.5.1.: "Deactivation by input to driving controls..." In Section 6.2.5.2: "Deactivation during an ongoing transition demand or an ongoing minimum risk manoeuvre. In case a transition demand or minimum risk manoeuvre is on-going, the system shall only be deactivated: (a) As defined in paragraph 6.2.5.1. or (b) Upon detection that the driver has taken hold of the steering control as a response to the transition demand or minimum risk manoeuvre and provided the system confirms the driver is attentive as defined in paragraph 6.3.1.1." So, the car remains in control during hand-off until a driver actively takes back control. The hand-off process must last a minimum of 10 seconds where the car is expected to operate as normal. In the event that the driver does not take control, the car is required to automatically come to a stop without relinquishing control. At no point can the car automatically transfer control to the driver except after fully executing a minimum risk manoeuvre and coming to a halt, or if a emergency manoeuvre is required (at which point the emergency manoeuvre system is in control).

nixass 3y ago

Tesla is a car for people who know nothing about cars and are easily impressed by buzzwords they can then use over a drink with friends. They were driving 2000 Kia and now suddenly they parrot Musk's words and have no idea about anything they just said.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
Elon Musk was the best snake oil salesman in the world.
- CamperBob2 3y ago
  Yeah, you're right. We should've left the EV revolution up to General Motors to kick off. They were almost ready, they swear!
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    Ah, yes, please hit me with your invisible straw men. Elon Musk didn't invent EVs or Tesla, he bought it. Not saying Tesla is bad, but its market value was completely pumped up by Elon's tactics of turning $TSLA into a hype driven speculative asset like Dogecoin versus gaining it from achieving sales succes on its own.
    - CamperBob2 3y ago
      (Shrug) They shipped a lot of electric cars. What have you done lately?
      - CamperBob2 3y ago
        Yeah, I thought so.
    - bdcravens 3y ago

Svip 3y ago

A Mercedes S-Class ain't cheap. But hasn't this been available for a year in Germany?

CamperBob2 3y ago
Plenty of cars have a "traffic jam pilot" feature that seems indistinguishable from this. I don't get the hype behind this announcement.
- rtkwe 3y ago
  It's going the step from being a "driver assist" feature where the driver is liable for things to an autonomous hands off feature with MB being liable if it crashes while you're using it.
- simion314 3y ago
  >Plenty of cars have a "traffic jam pilot" feature that seems indistinguishable from this. I don't get the hype behind this announcement. The difference is that the company is putting their money behind their promises. It is like you want to buy a product , one company gives you 5 years warranty and the other offers 0 days warranty but they show you some ads and cherry-picked stats.

jjoonathan 3y ago

> for use on public freeways The press release [1] seems to indicate that this is just for freeways, which I thought was the easy case that has been mostly solved (in a technological sense) for years by a bunch of different players. [1] https://media.mbusa.com/releases/release-1d2a8750850333f086a722043c01a0c3-conditionally-automated-driving-mercedes-benz-drive-pilot-further-expands-us-availability-to-the-countrys-most-populous-state-through-california-certification https://media.mbusa.com/releases/release-1d2a8750850333f086a...

hellotheretoday 3y ago
I think the difference here is assumption of liability so you won’t have as many nannycams and nag screens. My partners Subaru with adaptive cruise control and lane assist can essentially navigate the scenario they describe without a driver. However, if the car detects your eyes are off the road for more it gives you a nag prompt and more importantly if it detects your hands are off the wheel for more than a few seconds it turns off the assists. The hand detection isn’t just a simple sensor either, it checks for steering wheel inputs from the user and if it doesn’t get any it assumes you’ve let go (which is annoying if you’re driving down a long straight road) I assume this ultimately is just an expensive way to relax these requirements?

saberience 3y ago

So can I set my starting point in LA and drive to New York fully using Mercedes self driving? How long would it take to do this drive and how many interventions would I need to do?

rtkwe 3y ago

It's important to note that the Drive Pilot is currently limited pretty heavily in the conditions it will operate in (<40MPH, has a vehicle in front to follow, restricted to premapped routes, dry and clear roads with clear detectable lane markers) it's still a big step to go up to level 3 and Mercedes is assuming legal liability. I think Musk's insistence on a camera only system will ultimately be a huge anchor around Tesla's neck for self driving.

nocoiner 3y ago
If, as another commenter said, this is only for use on freeways, I’m not sure how than is any different from the system in my 2021 BMW. Is MB’s assumption of liability the only thing pushing it up to L3? Otherwise the capabilities sound identical.
- rtkwe 3y ago
  Liability and legally endorsing a complete hands off driving interaction are the big differences. Cars have kind of been able to do this for a while but you're supposed to keep complete control of the vehicle with hands on the wheel (usually actively monitored with nags if it things you've taken your hands off). While your BMW's adaptive cruise control (or whatever BMW named their similar system) plus lane keep could basically do this it's legally just a driver assist where the Drive Pilot is taking the big step of being in legal control of the car.
  - saberience 3y ago
    I don’t care about the legal liability I care about the actual features and capability of the system. If this thing can’t go faster than 50kph then it’s not better than my Honda civic from 2020, literally. I hate how this has gotten advertised as way better than a Tesla but actually it’s much much worse than a Tesla in terms of its actual ability to drive in all conditions.
    - rtkwe 3y ago
      It's more of a technical step forward than a feature step forward true but that's pretty significant still, IMO the gap between "driver assist" and full self driving is full of things like this. Adaptive cruise control + lane keeping + automatic lane change is, from a driver perspective, feature wise 80% of the way to highway self driving but they're all limited by the requirements that they're not hands-off features. That last gap of fully letting the user remove their hands from the wheel, explicitly, and assuming liability is putting a lot more trust in the system than your 2020 Civic. If they were as cavalier about driver safety and liability as Tesla they probably could have looser restrictions on it and just push the job of being a perfectly alert safety driver onto their customers..

hnburnsy 3y ago

https://group.mercedes-benz.com/innovation/product-innovation/autonomous-driving/drive-pilot-nevada.html https://group.mercedes-benz.com/innovation/product-innovatio... >On suitable freeway sections and where there is high traffic density, DRIVE PILOT can offer to take over the dynamic driving task, up to speeds of 40 mph...DRIVE PILOT available in the U.S. for model year 2024 S‑Class and EQS Sedan models, with the first cars delivered to customers in late 2023 So very limited driving scenarios (essentially only stop and go traffic on freeways) and extremely limited product availability.

hnburnsy 3y ago
According to this it won't change lanes either and costs $2,500... https://electrek.co/2023/09/27/hands-off-with-the-first-true-hands-free-car-in-the-us-and-its-not-tesla/ https://electrek.co/2023/09/27/hands-off-with-the-first-true... >This brings up a potential ownership consideration: You might want to keep the navigation lady’s voice turned on to warn you if you’re going to miss your exit, as one thing level 3 won’t do is change lanes. >The system will be available on Mercedes’ EQS and S-Class (but who would want that one? it runs on gas, yuck) in the US later this year. Significant hardware is required and can’t be retrofitted, so you’ll need to get a level 3-capable car on purchase. The hardware itself won’t change the vehicle’s price, but using the system requires a subscription, which costs $2,500 for the first year. Mercedes hasn’t yet committed to prices for subsequent years.
- rtkwe 3y ago
  There's a second more Tesla like system that operates at high speeds that can do that. The Ars-ticle seems much better and it's not stuck behind Bloomberg's paywall. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-autonomous-driving-system-takes-over-in-heavy-traffic/#:~:text=the%20big%20sedan%20smoothly%20moved%20into%20the%20left%20lane%20to%20pass https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

polartx 3y ago

“Cheap”

jiveturkey 3y ago

Cheap? Isn't Tesla $12k perpetual and MB is $2500/year? (and will obviously have annual or biannual increases) The service lifetime of even an ICE car is over 10 years. I can't read the actual article because the paywall bypasser's I've tried all use a captcha that additionally have tracking and I can't get through them.

panick21_ 3y ago

Has any company gotten more PR out of more basic technology? Literally 100s of articles hyping MB for tech that's not particularity useful.

spikels 3y ago

“$2,500 annual subscription” seems pricey for such a limited product but it’s an expensive car for wealth buyers. Still good to see car companies push out improvements like this. Next version should be more capable, then the next version… Eventually we start to reduce the 1.3 million deaths and 10s of millions of injuries every year.