Drive Pilot: Mercedes markets semi-autonomous driving of level 3

Mercedes-Benz Started Using Camera-Based Systems in 2009, Offering Traffic-Light Recognition and Lane-Keeping Assistance Systems, Switching to Stereo Cameras in 2013, To Add Depth of Field and Pedestrian Recognition for Emergency Braking Functions.

Mercedes Bets on Evolution as Tesla Touts Revolution in Automated Driving

Huge, Germany (Reuters)-As Tesla Touts The Cutting-Edge Nature of its New Full Self Driving Software, Rival Mercedes-Benz Says It has developed a similar system but stops short of allowing Members of the public to take it on urban roads.

File Photo: An Employee of Daimler Demonstrates Steering by the Drive Pilot Level 3 Autoomous Driving System in A New Mercedes-Benz S-Class Limousine On the Company’s Test Center Near Immondingen, Germany October 14, 2020. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann

The Germans, Pioneers in Developing Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Are Tooking A Step-By-Step Approach to Reresh New Technology, Waiting For Their Own Engineers, Rather Than The General Public, to Validate Their System.

Both Approaches – One Conservative and One Radical in Nature – Are Designed to Push Highly Automated Driving On To Public Roads, A Step That Could Massively Reduces accidents, since computers have Faster -Advocating Reflexes than humans.

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Can Provide Steering, Braking and Acceleration Support Under Limited Circumstances, Generally on Highways. Carmakers have refined from relying on their Technology to Let Cars Navigate Urban Inner-City Traffic.

Tesla Broke this tradition last week when it is released its fsd software that allows its computer-power cars to practise their reflexes in inner-city traffic situations, with a warning that its cars “May do the wrong thing at the Worst Time.»

Mercedes does not allow Members of the public to test still-expression systems. Its Engineers Need to Pass An Eligibility Exam to Become Test Drivers, and Another One for Testing Automated Driving Systems, The Carmaker Said.

Rather Than Force Their Customers to Put Their Trust in Processors, Software and the Ability of Machines to Learn Over Time, The Germans Want Their Cars to Be Validated by Engineers so that remain predictable for Owners.

“We do not want blind trust. We WANT Informaud Trust in the Car. The Customer Needs to Know Exactly What The Car Can and Cannot do, “A Mercedes Spokesman Told Reuters on the Sidelines of the Carmaker’s Test Track in Recent, Germany.

“The Worst Thing Would Be IF the Car Gets Into A Complex Situation and there was ambiguity over where the car is in control or not,” he said.

This is Why the Stuttgart-Based Carmaker, Owned by Daimler AG, is emphasizing its decades-cool experience of automated driver assistance system as it seeks to gain global regulatory approval for its own drive pilot system that boasts level 3 automation.

Level 3 Means The Driver Can Legally Take Their Eyes Off the Wheel and the Company, Daimler in This Case, Would Have to Assume Insurance Liabibility, Depending on the Jurisdiction.

The New Tesla System Customers Forces to Take Responsibility for Any Crash.

‘Logical Next Step’

Mercedes-Benz Started Using Camera-Based Systems in 2009, Offering Traffic-Light Recognition and Lane-Keeping Assistance Systems, Switching to Stereo Cameras in 2013, To Add Depth of Field and Pedestrian Recognition for Emergency Braking Functions.

It was been joined to develop project between the Tesla Model S and the Mercedes-Benz Electric B-Class that tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, Learned about Camera and Radar-Based Assistance Systems, Senior Engineers Familiar with the Project Told Reuters.

Mercedes Plans to Launch Drive Pilot Next Year and is pitching it as an evolution of its distronic system, Launched in 2013, which Uhich Uses Cameras and Radar to Keep Cars in Lane and at a distance to the car in front.

Drive Pilot will add a new sensor: lidar, to cross-reference data gathered by radar, ultrasonic sensors, high-definition mapping, radar and cameras.

“It is a paradigm change from distronic, but it is a strategic evolution. For us this is the logical next step and it is not shoting for the moon, “Said Michael Decker, Manager of Automated Driving at Mercedes-Benz Cars, While Standing On the Sidelines of the Company’s Testing Campus in Remontilegen, Where the Mercedes Hones Autoomous Driving Systems.

Decker, Behind the Wheel of the New S-Class, Drives the Car On To A Stretch of Road Mocked Up to Replicate An Autobahn and Selects Drive Pilot. The Car Glides Seamlessly, Providing Gentle Braking and Steering Inputs to Keep its place in Moving Traffic.

“I spend Most of my Time Dealing With Edge Cases, Those Special Situations that we need to have under control,” He Said. The Mercedes Drive Pilot Will Only Work at Up to 60 Kilometers in Hour, and Reach Higher Speeds Once The Legal Framework Allows.

It Will Function Only On Highways in Germany from mid-Xet Year Onward, if a new law is passed.

“If the Car Crosses the Border Into France, It Will Disengage, Becuse We Use High-Definition Mapping AS One of Our Validation Systems, and France has not created the Legal Framework for Allowing This System to Operate,” Decker Said.

Although Mercedes Engineers Are Aware of Tesla’s More Aggressive Approach to Marketing Their Systems, They Appear Unruffled.

“Yes. We Always followed this path. And we now that that we have the right strategy, ”Decker Said.

“What is paramount here is safety. This is about Having A Mature System. Mercedes Safety Standards Stand Over and Above Everhything, included Speed.»

Reporting by Edward Taylor in Frankfurt; Editing by Matthew Lewis

Drive Pilot: Mercedes markets semi-autonomous driving of level 3

Mercedes cuts the grass under the foot of the competition by being the first to offer, as an option, its semi-autonomous level 3 driving system called Drive Pilot. It will take € 5,000 for a class S and € 7,430 for an EQS.

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If in February 2017, the former Federal Minister of German Transport Alexander Dobrindt wondered about the ability of German manufacturers to remain among the best in the decade that would follow his mandate, Mercedes did not unemployment for his part. As early as December 2021, the manufacturer obtained the green light from the German Federal Authority for Automobiles (KBA) for Autonomous Level 3, or SAE 3 driving. Approval that allowed the star to the star to establish itself as the first in the world to equip its vehicles with an automated driving system valid internationally. For information, the test track (a 68 -kilometer section) is located ENTRA METZ and MERZIG, a German city located in the Saar, and is granted under missive intention by the German and French ministers.

After having refined his tests, Mercedes has just announced the provision, from May 17, 2022, of his semi-autonomous driving system called Drive Pilot. This will be available from € 5,000 for a class S compared to € 7,430 (€ 2430 in driving aids + the Drive Pilot at € 5,000) for the EQS. On the other hand, the Drive Pilot will only be installed on new cars since in addition to the software part, it is necessary to install additional hardware.

The Drive Pilot has been certified for use on the 13,000 km of German highways at maximum speeds of 60 km/h. Suffice to say that its use will be done mainly in traffic jams or when road traffic is dense. For the record, the semi-autonomous driving system is activated through controls located on the left and right of the steering wheel.

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Once triggered, Drive Pilot monitors speed, distance and keeps the vehicle in its path while taking into account the route, any incidents and of course the traffic signs. The system is capable of performing avoidance maneuvers and braking. He will also intervene if the driver does not respond to a request for a vehicle control over. Finally, Drive Pilot also knows how to recognize emergency vehicles.

“Released” from driving, the driver can go about other occupations such as surfing the web, read his emails, converse with friends or even watch a film, all from the central info-news screen.

This semi-autonomous level 3 driving is permitted by a multitude of ultrasonic sensors, but also a radar, cameras and a Lidar Scala 2 signed by the French supplier Valeo. This third generation of Lidar saw its scope multiplied by three, with an increase in its resolution and its angle of view. Result, the Scala 2 works whatever the weather conditions, remains insensitive “to variations in brightness“, is not blinded by the sun’s rays and sees in the dark.

The next stage of automation for Mercedes is the integration of the Park Pilot, which allows the vehicle to park on its own.

For the moment, Germany is the only European country to authorize level 3 of autonomous driving. The German manufacturer works to certify its drive pilot in California and Nevada, the precursors in this area. Nevertheless, the competition is harsher in the United States, with the Super Cruise by Cadillac (first in the classification of Consumer Reports), the Tesla autopilot and the Copilot 360 of Ford/Lincoln

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