Autonomous driving is a central future topic in the automotive industry. Mercedes-Benz has now announced for 2021 that they will offer their new Drive Pilot as a Level 3 system for highly automated driving. This should be possible up to a speed of 60 km/h.
According to current legislation, this is the maximum speed for such a system. Up to this speed, the driver can thus devote himself to other activities, such as watching videos or working in the so-called in-car office. However, the prerequisite for such an application is that the driver must follow requests from the car within ten seconds in order to take over manual control.
In the new Mercedes, a wide range of sensors and cameras will keep both the driver and the car in view. The safety of the process is the primary concern in all processes.
The only catch on the Group’s Level 3 system is the permanent data link required to evaluate the sensor data and decide when the Drive Pilot is not suitable. Since the data is too large to be processed directly in the internal memory, the car retrieves the information just in time and then deletes it again.
Mercedes-Benz is not the only automotive group working on autonomous or semi-autonomous driving. Earlier this year, Elon Musk announced that it will soon even test a Level 5 system with Tesla. So it remains exciting to see which technical innovations in the field of mobility will come up in the coming weeks.
