Mercedes-Benz will offer a hands-free driving system that can take some tasks from the driver in the U.S. this year if it can meet regulators’ standards in time.
The news comes from CEO Ola Kallenius. He told Automotive News, “It’s our objective to roll out this technology this year,” though the plans aren’t yet definite.
Level 3 …Maybe
Automakers working on autonomous driving systems follow a framework created by SAE International, a global association of engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive, and commercial-vehicle industries.
Related: Self-Driving Cars – Everything You Need to Know
That framework sorts self-driving systems into five levels of autonomy, ranging from simple lane-centering systems that require a human actively driving at all times (Level 1) to vehicles that lack steering wheels and pedals because the car does everything (Level 5).
Every system currently for sale in the U.S. is a Level 2 system. These involve several automation systems that work together, like lane-centering and smart cruise control. They might let the driver briefly take their hands from the wheel but never their attention from the road.
Mercedes says its new Ride Pilot could be the first Level 3 system sold in the U.S. At Level 3, the car can drive itself under limited conditions, but the driver must remain ready to retake control. It allows drivers, Kallenius told AN, to engage in “certain secondary activities,” such as checking e-mails, while the car safely maintains its distance from other cars.
Useable Below 37 mph
Ride Pilot can operate below 37 mph, taking control in traffic jams to let the driver rest. The system will prompt the driver to take control if needed.
It was certified for use in Germany in December. Mercedes plans to offer it on the company’s flagship gasoline-powered sedan, the S-Class, and its electric flagship, the EQS, by the end of 2022.
Kallenius says the company has been in discussions with American regulators about allowing its use on U.S. roads this year. However, he wasn’t specific about which states or agencies the company was talking to.
Confusion Over Names and Advertising
The move could make Mercedes the first automaker to offer a Level 3 system in the U.S. Volvo has made similar plans, and neither automaker is certain to reach its goal.
Most other automakers have shied away from describing their systems as capable of operating at Level 3. Some, like GM’s upcoming Ultra Cruise, are arguably just as capable as what Kallenius describes. But those automakers, if they publicly discuss SAE levels, call their technology Level 2 systems.
Tesla has been aggressive in its advertising, earning ire from some safety advocates for naming its Level 2 system “Full-Self Driving” when the system is far from true self-driving capability.
Safety advocates, meanwhile, have begun to caution Americans about self-driving technology. Two of the most prominent auto safety organizations have made news on the issue early in 2022.
AAA began testing the systems that prompt drivers to return their attention to the road and found that no system currently on the market met its standards.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced plans to begin rating driver attention warnings later this year.
