Mercedes-Benz Hits New Benchmark in Autonomous Driving with DRIVE PILOT | Mercedes-Benz of Farmington

Mercedes-Benz DRIVE PILOT Level 3 autonomous driving technology is a big deal that will make lower-speed driving much less stressful for drivers. To reach fully autonomous driving, automotive manufacturers are climbing up a five-level autonomous driving ladder.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) rates levels of autonomous driving, ranging from Level 1, completely driver-controlled with either steering assistance or braking and acceleration assistance, to Level 5, Full Driving Automation, in which vehicles can drive anywhere at any time in any conditions without a human’s input except to provide the destination. This is the holy grail of self-driving vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz’s DRIVE PILOT is Level 3 – Conditional Driving Automation. The system makes decisions and acts on them based on various driver assistance technologies and artificial intelligence. Drivers can be hands-off and do other things, but are available to take over immediately if needed. DRIVE PILOT is the first internationally certified system. It will be an available option on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS as early as next year.

Core functions of braking, steering, power supply, and some sensors are the backbone of DRIVE PILOT. Mercedes-Benz builds redundancy into these to prevent system failure. The ability to drive the vehicle is based on information provided by radar, cameras, and LIDAR, as well as data from ultrasound, moisture sensors, and microphones.

As MotorTrend’s reviewer put it, “You can sit back and relax. As long as you’re on an autobahn, traveling at 37 mph or less in daylight on a dry road and the ambient temperature is 40 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, Drive Pilot will take care of everything, automatically steering and slowing and accelerating the car for as long as those conditions prevail, simultaneously calculating as many as 400 different trajectories in real-time.”

TheDrive.com’s reviewer said,

“DRIVE PILOT is like hiring a trained chauffeur that only works under very specific conditions; Drive Pilot’s ability to negotiate a variety of real-world scenarios was truly impressive, but what stood out was how quickly and confidently it did it.”

The quest for fully autonomous driving rolls along faster and faster. We’ve already benefited from many innovations growing from autonomous driving R & D. This is just the next – and really exciting step. You’ll see it soon at Mercedes-Benz of Fairfield.