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by digitalPhonix 147 days ago
Mercedes Drive Pilot (“SAE Level 3”) is certified on some very specific stretches of insterstate in California to not require the driver to be responsible.

https://www.mbusa.com/en/owners/manuals/drive-pilot

Requirements:

- Stop and go traffic (or less than 40mph?)

- On some specific sections of highway

- Driver doesn’t need to monitor but must be ready to take over with 15(?) seconds of the system requesting

> Mercedes-Benz is assuming liability for any crashes or incidents that occur while the autonomous system is active
2 comments
mannykannot 147 days ago
That last criterion most assuredly will not be matched here.
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knowitnone3 147 days ago
that's really dumb of Mercedes take on that liability for little benefit - sell more cars, make more profit? My prediction is MB drops this or goes bankrupt in the next 10 years.
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ninalanyon 146 days ago
It's a marketing gimmick. The conditions under which it can be used are so restrictive that it's really not useful which means it will be rarely used so Mercedes exposure to liability is really quite small.
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tirant 147 days ago
That’s what SAE L3/L4/L4 autonomous driving systems are about. The car takes full responsibility for a given set of conditions (ODD).
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josephcsible 147 days ago
They need to take on that liability to let the human driver stop paying attention, and being able to do that is huge.
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hcazz 147 days ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiB8GVMNJkE

Not sure you understand how "The Formula" works. The profit generated by adding this feature will outweigh the cost of any resulting accidents that they take liability for.

A less pessimistic way of phrasing it is that within the boundaries they've defined, their self driving system is so much better than a human that they're willing to assume responsibility for crashes deemed "at-fault" while using the system.

Not intentionally trying to compare that with other automakers, but Mercedes is the only "you can buy now" vehicle (ignoring robotaxis/Waymo/others) that assumes liability with those capabilities. Until other automakers provide that legal guarantee, they're parlor tricks at best that will continue to get folks killed in scenarios that they otherwise wouldn't had they been actually paying attention.

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