Mercedes-Benz
LOS ANGELES—Mercedes-Benz has by no means shied away from new expertise. Traditionally, the carmaker has been an early adopter and developer of methods akin to antilock brakes, stability management, airbags, and adaptive cruise management. With its EQ line of all-electric automobiles properly underway, Mercedes-Benz is now making a push towards automated driving.
We sampled the brand new Drive Pilot system, which shall be out there on the 2024 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS sedans, on among the most congested highways in Los Angeles. It’s the primary stage 3 automated driving system permitted to be used within the US, however initially it would solely be out there and lively in California and Nevada. Drive Pilot permits for hands-free freeway driving much like different methods, akin to Tremendous Cruise from GM, BlueCruise from Ford, or Freeway Assistant from BMW, however goes additional by permitting the motive force to additionally take their eyes off the highway.
An outlined operation design area
Sure circumstances should be happy earlier than you’ll be able to activate Drive Pilot, an vital idea in autonomous driving often known as the “operational design area.”
For Drive Pilot to activate, the automobile should be touring no sooner than 40 mph (65 km/h), it should have a automobile in entrance to observe, highway circumstances should be dry and clear, the lane markings should be detectable, and the route should be pre-mapped by the system. These limitations imply Drive Pilot is to be used in heavy stop-and-go visitors, acceptable for the bumper-to-bumper congestion of LA’s I-10 Freeway, however not free-flowing highways. The plan is to extend the velocity limiter sooner or later, although.
Mercedes-Benz
We began from Santa Monica in unusually gentle visitors that was flowing properly above 40 mph, so we engaged the Mercedes’ hands-on (stage 2) adaptive cruise management paired with lane centering as a primer. This allowed us to expertise Mercedes’ new Automated Lane Change characteristic. As we approached properly behind a slower-moving automobile, the system chimed and displayed a passing maneuver illustration within the instrument panel. A second later, the flip sign activated, and the massive sedan easily moved into the left lane to move. This method is obtainable between 40 and 85 mph (136 km/h) and clearly solely when the circumstances are secure.
No quite a lot of miles into our drive, visitors started to sluggish sufficient for Drive Pilot. As soon as the speedometer dropped to 40 mph, an illuminated white stripe appeared on the 10 and a pair of o’clock positions of the steering wheel’s Drive Pilot buttons, telling us the system was prepared. A fast faucet of a kind of buttons they usually flip to inexperienced, and you may take your arms off the wheel.
