new York It’s a breakthrough: After months of waiting, the California Transportation Authority has approved Mercedes-Benz’s advanced autopilot “Drive Pilot”. The Swabians have thus received the most far-reaching approval of all car manufacturers in the USA – and thus also overtake Tesla.
As the California Department of Motor Vehicles explained on Thursday, Mercedes is allowed to use its system on freeways in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego, among others. The special feature: The system enables highly automated driving at the so-called Level 3.
In practical terms, this means that for the first time the driver can take his hands off the wheel and his eyes off the road when the autopilot is switched on, for example to answer e-mails or watch videos. If requested, he has to intervene within around eight seconds. In all likelihood, liability will be transferred to Mercedes in the meantime.
The Swabians are the world leaders for private cars. They had already received approval in Nevada at the beginning of the year, and the Level 3 system has also been approved in Germany. All other advanced autopilots, including Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” and General Motors’ “Super Cruise” systems, only allow Level 2: Drivers have to monitor the road conditions at all times and keep their hands on the wheel.
With the approval, Mercedes has “reached another milestone,” said Mercedes Technology Director Markus Schäfer the Handelsblatt. The “Drive Pilot” can now be brought to the US market and “generate a great deal of added value for our US customers, since they gain time during the highly automated journey.”
Mercedes autopilot: California as the lead market
The Californian supervisory authority set strict limits on the use on Thursday. The system can only be operated on the highway and in heavy traffic or in traffic jams, i.e. at speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour. It can also only be used during the day.
Nevertheless, approval is an important step. California – considered the fifth largest economy in the world – is considered a lead market. The decisions of the supervisory authorities there have a signal effect for many other US states.
On the other hand, California is an important market for the competitor Tesla. According to calculations by the Reuters news agency, the state accounts for 16 percent of Elon Musk’s global deliveries. Autonomous driving systems are an important selling point.
While Tesla develops its own chips, Mercedes makes a pact with Nvidia for autonomous driving. The US chip manufacturer’s Orin system should improve the computing power of all series in the future and also make higher autopilot speeds possible.
And while Musk has so far only relied on cameras and has rejected the installation of laser sensors, so-called lidars, for example, one is installed for an extra charge in the S-Class and in the EQS from Mercedes, the first two vehicles with the new “Drive Pilot”. Most recently, Mercedes had exchanged an important partner: the lidars will no longer come from the French group Valeo, but from the US company Luminar, which offers them cheaper. It is still being discussed in which other vehicles the technology should be installed.
Mercedes plans to expand the autopilot system
The first vehicles equipped with the system are scheduled for delivery at the end of 2023. If CEO Schäfer has his way, Mercedes will expand its range in the coming years: “We were the first with certification in Germany, the first in the USA and want to introduce highly automated driving in other countries as well.”
However, the requirements differed significantly depending on the location. The regulatory situation in other US states and countries is observed “very closely” and is in exchange with many authorities, says Schäfer.
Technically, one is already working on expanding the system. “We follow a step-by-step approach designed for security,” explains Schäfer. “By the end of this decade, we want to expand availability on the motorway to up to 130 kilometers per hour in the final stage of expansion.”
On the way there, “various intermediate steps” are conceivable: A good application could therefore be to increase the speed behind a car in front to 90 kilometers per hour. However, safety is “the top priority.” New functions and higher speeds represent “additional requirements for the sensors, software and the safety concept.”
question of liability
A tricky point is the question of liability. Officially, Mercedes makes no clear statement here. “The United States has a well-established legal system for determining liability on roads and highways. We believe these rules apply even when using the Drive Pilot. In other words: The old rules are the new rules,” the group explains in a cryptic manner when asked.
In corporate circles it is said that the liability passes to Mercedes within the eight seconds that the system controls the vehicle fully autonomously, even in case of doubt. However, according to the restriction, this only applies in the case where the car is in a well-maintained condition and the driver is not drunk, for example.
Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and one of the pioneers of autopilot development, criticizes Mercedes’ attitude as “strange”: “Liability should be based on whether the driver takes over in a reasonable time when he asked to take control. And the computer shouldn’t turn on Level 3 if the driver isn’t able to take control,” he says.
“If an accident occurs while automated driving is switched on, liability should lie entirely with Mercedes-Benz,” demands Koopmans.
After numerous accidents, US supervisors have recently taken a more critical stance in regulating autopilot systems. For example, Tesla is under increasing pressure.
More: “My autopilot almost killed me”: Tesla files cast doubt on Elon Musk’s promises
First publication: 09.06.2023, 03:05.