Mercedes Beats Tesla to Level 3 (Legal) Autonomous Driving

[KillerHERTZ]

Mercedes Drive Pilot Level 3 Autonomous Tech Officially On Sale In Germany

The Stuttgart-based automaker became the first in the industry to receive international approval for Level 3 autonomous tech in December last year.

www.motor1.com

 

[ALFAitalia]

Maybe its just where I'm getting old!......but I could never put my trust (or my life!) into the "hands" of a computer on the public road. I still get twitchy when using cruise control!!!! With the amount of issues on cars caused by software failure I'm surprise many others will too!

 

[clk208]

MB have been working on this since the W140 IIRC so great to see them get to level 3.

The driving assistance plus pack in my S213 is excellent if you’re aware of the nuances and mostly drove me out of london to the M11 the other day and a good chunk of the journey back up north, so imagine level 3 will be amazing.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Maybe its just where I'm getting old!......but I could never put my trust (or my life!) into the "hands" of a computer on the public road. I still get twitchy when using cruise control!!!! With the amount of issues on cars caused by software failure I'm surprise many others will too!

I can appreciate your position from a psychological perspective, but I’m not sure that I would trust the average human driver to make the right decisions any more than the average autonomous car.

Once all - or more likely most - cars are fully autonomous - then their ability to make the right decisions will increase dramatically due to the collective intelligence of all (autonomous) cars.

Humans try to do collective intelligence and have done it quite well for thousands of years, but even in a digital age it’s slow. Collective intelligence of all autonomous cars will be near instantaneous.

 

[BigJase88]

Garbage

 

[ChipChop]

The fundamental problem with autonomy is that for it to be safe all vehicles on the road must be made to communicate with each other. Where does that leave the citizens free choice to drive for example a pagoda SL, 190d or any unconnected vehicle.
Would other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, be required to be connected for this 'collective intelligence' to function with a satisfactory degree of safety?
It seems to me vehicle autonomy is seeking to solve a 'problem' (for profit) which does not exist. I for example have never crashed a car. Where is the need for autonomy?

 

[BigJase88]

The fundamental problem with autonomy is that for it to be safe all vehicles on the road must be made to communicate with each other. Where does that leave the citizens free choice to drive for example a pagoda SL, 190d or any unconnected vehicle.
Would other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, be required to be connected for this 'collective intelligence' to function with a satisfactory degree of safety?
It seems to me vehicle autonomy is seeking to solve a 'problem' (for profit) which does not exist. I for example have never crashed a car. Where is the need for autonomy?

What i dont get is. If the car is driving itself. What do you do with your hands

Seems like it would only make the driver more likely to fall asleep

 

[ChipChop]

What i dont get is. If the car is driving itself. What do you do with your hands

Seems like it would only make the driver more likely to fall asleep

I think in a Tisla you have to keep your hands on the wheel or at least have some steering input every so often. All seems so pointless really.

Meanwhile your connected car streams data which someone can sell to someone else for purposes unknown. That is the real point of autonomy. Data collection. Maybe one day these people will get a real job that benefits society instead of leeches off it.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Meanwhile your connected car streams data which someone can sell to someone else for purposes unknown. That is the real point of autonomy. Data collection.

Which sensitive or valuable data would a connected car stream which a smartphone doesn’t already, or car manufacturers don’t know already?

 

[ALFAitalia]

The data I'd be worried about being shared is velocity!!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

The fundamental problem with autonomy is that for it to be safe all vehicles on the road must be made to communicate with each other.

To be safe, or to be safer?

Perhaps it could be argued that it’s safe for a single autonomous car, but it would be safer if all cars are autonomous.

To achieve Level 3 approval, “someone” must consider it to be safe, and it doesn’t seem likely that it’s the same “someone” who would sell or buy data streamed from connected cars.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

The data I'd be worried about being shared is velocity!!

Do you have a smartphone? If so then I wouldn’t wait until you’re driving a Level 3 autonomous car before you start worrying.

 

[whitenemesis]

"Mercedes is caught in a row over privacy after admitting its cars are fitted with secret sensors which can pinpoint their location.
All new and used cars sold by Mercedes-Benz dealers are fitted with tracking devices."

Mercedes admits its cars are fitted with secret tracking sensor

Mercedes, which sold more than 170,000 new cars in Britain alone last year, insisted the sensors are only activated in 'extreme circumstances', such as when customers default on their payments.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[ALFAitalia]

Do you have a smartphone? If so then I wouldn’t wait until you’re driving a Level 3 autonomous car before you start worrying.

Not the same at all....my smart phone is not reporting my speed to the police or all the other cars all the time....they could only that as evidence like that in the event of an accident/incident.......not just in normal driving. I might be wrong but I'm not aware of anyone being prosecuted for speeding based solely on smart phone speed evidence......

 

[KennyN]

We have fully autonomous vehicles in the work that deliver reels of paper to the presses , whilst they are "pretty" safe with each other ,as they all know where they are at a specific moment in time on their own network , they have various areas of damage caused by various "things" not on their network, whether that be people / forklifts etc. , and when their network goes down they just stop , that will be interesting at 70 mph when the MB network stops and the other autonomous networks dont.

I personally dont see the benefits of such a system on our congested road network , if i want something to do the driving for me i will get a taxi.

I will stick to the good old "mince pies" and personal judgement thank you very much.

K

 

[ChipChop]

Which sensitive or valuable data would a connected car stream which a smartphone doesn’t already, or car manufacturers don’t know already?

Calculating an individuals carbon footprint.

Good citizen or bad citizen. A social credit score.

 

[ChipChop]

To be safe, or to be safer?

Perhaps it could be argued that it’s safe for a single autonomous car, but it would be safer if all cars are autonomous.

To achieve Level 3 approval, “someone” must consider it to be safe, and it doesn’t seem likely that it’s the same “someone” who would sell or buy data streamed from connected cars.

And it could be safer still if every occupant of an autonomous driving car had to wear a full face helmet and Dainese body armour. But it is not really about safety. It is about pushing the latest tech.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Not the same at all....my smart phone is not reporting my speed to the police or all the other cars all the time....they could only that as evidence like that in the event of an accident/incident.......not just in normal driving. I might be wrong but I'm not aware of anyone being prosecuted for speeding based solely on smart phone speed evidence......

Are you aware of anyone being prosecuted based solely on data generated and transmitted by cars?

Why would your believe that your speed will be reported to the Police by your car, but not by your smartphone?

If the Police wanted that information then it’s already available through any smartphone, no need to wait.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Calculating an individuals carbon footprint.

Good citizen or bad citizen. A social credit score.

I could imagine a car being used to estimate a small part of an individuals carbon footprint. I could imagine a smartphone being used to calculate more of an individual’s carbon footprint.

Is your carbon footprint really the thing that worries you most? Could the carbon footprint of your car and your use of it be estimated reasonably easily already?

That information is already available to “someone”.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

And it could be safer still if every occupant of an autonomous driving car had to wear a full face helmet and Dainese body armour. But it is not really about safety. It is about pushing the latest tech.

I only mentioned safety because I was clarifying what your comment on safety.