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A future where your car drives you to work while you fall asleep in the driver’s seat is still years away from becoming a reality. However, Mercedes is taking the first step towards such a future by accepting legal liability if its car gets into an accident while using its Drive Pilot technology, the brand’s SAE Level 3 Advanced Driver Assistance System. Mercedes could deploy it on US roads by year’s end, reports Roads and Trails.
The Mercedes Pilot Drive allows for completely hands-off driving, with the car taking over the functions of the vehicle. However, as with most emerging technologies, the scope of actual use is quite limited. Drive Pilot is only available on roads that have been mapped by Mercedes, such as GM’s SuperCruise system.
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The system also limits the functionality of the technology to speeds below 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour) on divided highways without traffic control, which we experienced on our first trip with EQE. Mercedes only allows drivers to use the technology in good weather conditions during the day.
However, the system can navigate many sudden events that can take the driver by surprise. If the Drive Pilot detects the driver’s need to take control, the system gives them a 10 second warning before disengaging, giving the driver time to focus their attention back on the road ahead. That’s what the system does when encountering an emergency vehicle, using a microphone and camera to detect the car before telling the driver to take over.
Mercedes has received approval from Germany to use the technology on roads, with Mercedes mapping out the entirety of the country’s highways. The company also hopes that the technology will arrive on US roads by the end of the year, with the brand seeing California and Nevada as the first two states to allow such driving. Mercedes has mapped many of the state’s highways. However, don’t expect widespread adoption to happen all at once.
George Massing, the company’s VP of automated driving, said: Roads and Trails which Mercedes hopes will have to deal with every state in adopting rules to allow Mercedes to operate its Drive Pilot technology. Mercedes is already looking beyond California and Nevada because there is little federal regulation related to the technology.
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