Yahoo Autos Look Ma, no hands! Or eyes! What it's like to (not) drive with Mercedes Drive Pilot
NINTH CIRCLE OF TRAFFIC HELL, Calif. – For the better part of a decade, I would get on Interstate 10 at Cloverfield Boulevard here in Santa Monica, Calif., and then sit in literal gridlock for about 40 minutes until I exited the 10 a mere six miles later at Fairfax. It was a boring, soul-sucking, frustrating, get-mad-at-the-world experience. I moved to Oregon partly because I just couldn’t take it anymore. Yesterday, I found myself right back there and despite initial pangs of anxiety, it wasn’t that bad this time. That’s because I wasn’t driving. Or even paying that much attention to the depressing, gridlocked world around me. I was letting Mercedes Drive Pilot do the job.
Despite what anyone might claim, there is no such thing as a “self-driving car” currently on sale. New car autonomy is broken into five levels, and to date, nothing has crossed the Level 2 threshold. Even General Motors’ hands-free Super Cruise and Ford’s BlueCruise are Level 2 since they still require the driver to pay attention at all times, and shut down if it detects your eyes aren’t on the road. Tesla’s Autopilot isn’t quite as hellbent on ensuring your attention, but it too requires the driver to take over when necessary and is therefore Level 2.
Mercedes Drive Pilot, which will be available on the S-Class and EQS Sedan for 2024, is the first Level 3 system available in the United States. The key advancement here is that it does not require the driver to pay attention. They can use the vast central touchscreen to watch videos, play games or browse the internet while the car does all the work. Looking at your phone still runs afoul of California and Nevada law (that would be just one of the laws that need some adjustment due to this system), but apparently reading old-fashioned printed materials like books and magazines should be OK. I’d consult a lawyer about that, but apparently it’s not explicitly forbidden unlike phones, instead falling under “distracted driving,” which I’m guessing is negated by the Level 3 capability. Again, just a guess, not a lawyer.
To be clear, Drive Pilot is still not a self-driving car that can take you from any point A to any point B. It can only be used on restricted highway/freeways that have been high-definition mapped. It can only operate at speeds up to 40 mph, meaning traffic. It will not work at night or in tunnels, or if it rains or snows. It can also only be operated (and purchased) in Las Vegas and the major metropolitan areas of California. Two reasons for that: California and Nevada are the two states that have authorized the use of Level 3 autonomous vehicles, and therefore are the only places where Mercedes did its HD mapping and other necessary preparations. For example, it needed to study all the possible emergency vehicle sirens and sounds of both states in order to properly program the car’s cameras and microphones to detect them.
Before taking a deep dive into more operational parameters, legal ramifications and all the extra stuff added to the S-Class and EQS to make Level 3 happen, let’s go over what it’s like to operate.
First, you must engage the Distronic adaptive cruise control system, which would be the Level 2 system found on other S-Class and EQS sedans. This system operates at all speeds, keeps a driver-selected distance to the vehicle ahead, and works in stop-and-go driving. Though it requires you to keep a token hand or even just finger on the wheel, the system will steer you neatly in your lane and make automated lane changes per a request from the driver or by itself when it deems the coast sufficiently clear (Super Cruise can do this, too). I used this system on the free-and-clear drive back to Santa Monica on the 10 and it worked flawlessly.
Again, though, Distronic requires driver interaction and attention. When the car determines that all the Level 3 parameters are met, white lights illuminate in the engagement buttons located at 2 and 10 on the steering wheel. Pressing either one of the buttons engages the Level 3 system, which is indicated by turquoise lights located above those buttons as well as on top of the steering wheel. They’re impossible to miss. Similarly colored illustrations appear in the head-up display and instrument panel, though exactly what it shows depends on the selected IP design at the time. The Driver Assistance screen is the most detailed.
At this point, you can sit back, relax and, in my case, perform the ultimate narcissistic move of watching yourself on YouTube.
