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Transportation

Mercedes-Benz Gets Approval To Deploy Level 3 Driving Tech In Nevada (thedrive.com) 26

Mercedes-Benz will be the first automaker to launch a Level 3 automated driving system in the United States. The Drive reports: The news comes as part of a series of announcements made by Mercedes at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, noting that it has received official approval from the Nevada Department of Transportation to operate its Drive Pilot system on state roads. It expects to receive its formal certification within two weeks. In addition to Nevada, Mercedes has also applied for similar permissions in California, though it has not yet received approval. The automaker is optimistic that it will in time.

Level 3 driving assistance is defined by the SAE as a conditional hands-free automated driving system, meaning that the person behind the wheel is not actually driving while the system is engaged. However, the vehicle may request that the driver take over if certain driving conditions aren't met, unlike Level 4 and 5 which will not prompt the driver to take over once the system is engaged in its operational design domain.

Mercedes' selling point for Drive Pilot is to enable its customers to reclaim their time while in the vehicle. Specifically, the automaker says it will allow drivers to "focus on certain secondary activities such as communicating with colleagues via In-Car Office, browsing the web or relaxing while watching a movie." It's unclear just how much time drivers will get back, or where the system will be used, as Drive Pilot is currently limited to just 37 miles per hour elsewhere in the world.

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Mercedes-Benz Gets Approval To Deploy Level 3 Driving Tech In Nevada

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  • Mercedes' selling point for Drive Pilot is to enable its customers to reclaim their time while in the vehicle. Specifically, the automaker says it will allow drivers to "focus on certain secondary activities such as communicating with colleagues via In-Car Office, browsing the web or relaxing while watching a movie.

    Which means they can do away with this [youtube.com]. It's no longer about the driving experience so no need to have one.

    • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

      On the contrary, driving skills are still valued. If it can't go fast, you'll still do all your pleasure driving yourself. It will just relieve you of the daily grind, which most people would appreciate on most days.

  • by Mal-2 ( 675116 ) on Friday January 06, 2023 @08:11PM (#63186516) Homepage Journal

    You could hand over far more than half your driving time to the car, but less than half your miles, if you have a clogged commute. You don't need to go more than 37 mph if you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Then you'll have energy left for the actual fun parts of the drive, when you take over.

    • Battle Mountain to Austin at 37 MPH? The mind boggles. Heaven forbid you are headed to Ely.

      37 MPH is somewhat below the optimum fuel economy rate as well.

      • Germany recently opened Level 3 self driving up to 130 km/h. Mercedes has applied for a permit. The driver has to be able to take control of the car within 10 seconds: https://www.heise.de/news/Hoch... [heise.de] Source in German
      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Battle Mountain to Austin at 37 MPH? The mind boggles. Heaven forbid you are headed to Ely.

        37 MPH is somewhat below the optimum fuel economy rate as well.

        If it's gridlock all the way, you'd be lucky to do 37mph anywhere.

        37mph is below most city limit speed limits. And it's likely where you're going to encounter gridlock and the worst part of your daily commute. Being able to offload that part of the drive would be wonderful.

        My commute takes me through roads which on weekends are a pleasure to drive. But on

  • It looks like the driver will no longer be liable for accidents with this system running https://www.repairerdrivennews... [repairerdrivennews.com] . That seems awesome but I'd like to know a lot more about the type of scenarios the car turns over to the driver (which would then transfer liability to them), how often they happen, and how quickly do I need to respond when I do need to take over. My worry is that while they advertise zero driver liability they introduce so many caveats that the driver is effectively liable for most p

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Friday January 06, 2023 @09:10PM (#63186606)

    Guess making big claims and then under-delivering does not _actually_ make you a tech leader.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Guess making big claims and then under-delivering does not _actually_ make you a tech leader.

      TBF, Tesla and Musk have never been tech leaders, just a cult that likes to pretend they're tech leaders.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Yes, very much so. Apparently many people even believe Musk is an engineer or a scientist. A BSc in physics and a BA in economics does make him neither and does not do so by a very large margin.

  • Self-driving CRAP, making sprawl even more effortless since 2023. YUCK! Pave the Earth.
    • It's so much better if all the poor people get dumped into megacities, reliant on public transport, leaving nature and living with a little space around them and the private transport to traverse it the provenance of the rich.

      • Yep! Public transit is great (I love trains). So are cities. Sprawl is fucking LONELY.

        BTW - you don't need megacities to avoid sprawl. There's a happy medium ... towns built with a walkable scale.

        In fact, done right, it leaves a lot more nature intact than with American-style sprawl.

        • Most of my country is small cities surround by mixed use villages/towns, you still want a car. I bike to the shop, I drive to work. I only take the train to go on leisure trips or to the airport. Losing half an hour to public transport for routine travel sucks. The cascading disruptions of public transport tend to be far more impactful than traffic jams too. Private transport is just much better at routing, obviously at departure and destination but also everywhere in between.

          Urban sprawl is an overpopulati

  • A traffic jam is really easy, just follow the leader. It's almost impossible to get false positive/negative detection of obstacles which is the bane of normal driving automation (Tesla pile ups with stopped emergency vehicles abound).

    A false positive detection of an upcoming edge cases telling you to stop, like a human signaller, in a jam is also a lot less obtrusive than phantom breaking at highway speed. Jams are easy mode, normal driving requires strong AI ... and enslaving a strong AI into driving your

    • That could be, but it would kind of make sense. I would never consider paying how much Tesla charges for so-called FSD - but when I visit California, suddenly it makes more sense. All that driving in traffic is infuriating. (Of course, a better solution is to just not live there...)
    • I recently used the website https://optyx.com/eye-exam/whe... [optyx.com] to renew my driver's license and the eye test service was extremely convenient. The website was easy to navigate and the process of scheduling my appointment was seamless. The eye test itself was quick and efficient and the staff were very friendly. I was able to get my results immediately and complete my renewal in no time. Highly recommend!
  • As long as it's not your kid being killed.

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced -- even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it. -- John Keats

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