[I_DRINK_KOOLAID]

> This decision tells us nothing about the safety of the Mercedes system compared to its competitors

Mercedes is just taking notice that grandstanding and PR worked for Tesla, so they are doing the same thing.

Everybody who is serious about this knows that unless you get Level 5 it's all just grandstanding.

Level 5 won't come from unleashing Level 3 into the world and throwing deers , cyclists and pedestrians at it (hopefully not literally).

It's just a weird hill that brainpower and capital decided to die on. Deaths on the road are tragic but airbags, seatbelts and ultimately bigger cars and lower alcohol intake are something that is practical, whereas FSD is something like a pie-in-the-sky thing

[upbeat_general]

I don't know how you came to this conclusion.

Level 4 is a serious goal that provides very useful benefits.

[ClumsyPilot]

Bigger cars? Have you seen the new pickups, what do you want to drive, a tank?

Also bigger cars kill more pedestrians

[HWR_14]

People who say "bigger cars are safer" mean "the person driving the bigger car is safer". It's an arms race to them and they want the bigger car.

[I_DRINK_KOOLAID]

Not all crashes involve multiple cars. Bigger cars reduce the amount of deaths because there is more metal mass between you and the tree/barrier that you hit.

I also said that bigger cars is just one element in the equation, with seatbelt compliance, zero alcohol tolerance, airbags etc.

All those things are much more feasible and practical solutions compared to pie-in-the-sky FSD

[yywwbbn]

US and Germany might be at different stages of this process, though. For example Germany has almost 2x less deaths per km driven and the situation is even better in countries like Switzerland or Norway.

Also we’re talking about the perspective of the car manufacturer. New cars are already significantly safer than an average car on the road so it’s relatively little they can do to address many of the points since there seems to bet not so much room left for non marginal improvements in safety and FSD is a much more attractive proposition to most car buyers than “3.5% safer than the competing brand”.

[I_DRINK_KOOLAID]

> FSD is a much more attractive proposition to most car buyers

So is donating to the church hoping to secure a place in Heaven. We all fool ourselves for the sake of peace of mind or immediate gratification, the important thing is to be aware of it.

It's important to be honest with yourself and decide who are the people who can take you for a ride.

For me it's my younger siblings, the sport franchises I support, and attractive women. Because at least in such circumstances it would be a fun and worthy ride.

Being taken for a ride by Musk, Mary Barra, Herbert Diess, (insert automotive CEO), or even Elizabeth Holmes, Bernie Madoff...that's pathetic, not fun and will leave you with regrets...but maybe techno-utopianists have a different mindset and their calculus is the opposite of mine, meaning they have a contempt for the small things in life and only get excited about moonshots and pie-in-the-sky ideas even if it means getting scammed.

[yywwbbn]

I disagree. If often had to spend time in highway traffic jams (which is what Mercedes seems to be offering here) I’d rather pay an extra 10k to get 30 minutes of my life back every day instead of buying a car which in which I’d be 1.5% less likely to die during a crash.