[dakrisht]

I'm not positive on this but I believe Tesla either uses technology or licenses patents directly from Mercedes-Benz regarding their whole "self-driving" and "autopilot" marketing here.

Case in point: my current car does a variety of self-driving tasks such as:

- Autonomous braking

- Active lane keeping assist to steer you in the lane if the radar and cameras detect you are swerving

- PRE-SAFE collision prevention plus that will autonomously brake if it detects an imminent impact

- Pedestrian awareness system that will autonomously brake if it detects a pedestrian is entering the range of the long, medium and short range radar

- Distronic Plus that will accelerate and brake according to both the vehicle in front and behind you from 0 mph up to 100mph

- Attention assist that employs various sensor to detect drowsiness and alert the driver audibly and via haptic feedback if it's time to take a break.

- Active blind spot assist that will audibly, visually and via haptic feedback alert the driver that a car has entered your hotspot and prevent you from entering that particular lane

So while the Tesla camp is and should be excited about "self-driving" enhancements, Mercedes-Benz has been doing this for well over 2 years now with some of the technology above even becoming standard features on non-high end Mercedes vehicles such as the S-Class with the appropriate packages.

I don't really see much but hype with respect to Tesla's announcement.

Good link here: http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/benz/safety

[MichaelGG]

I had an '88 Korando with blind spot assistance. It was a $5 option, self install. I put a convex mirror on in addition to the flat ones.

[josefresco]

"standard features on non-high end Mercedes vehicles such as the S-Class with the appropriate packages."

The absurdity of this statement is amazing. Apparently Mercedes has brainwashed it's owners into a new definition of "standard".

[deeviant]

Yeah, there are some COTS parts available for various autonomous driving functionality. My Ford fusion does pretty much all of the above, and I do not think Ford implemented everything themselves, and the sensors look very similar to various other implementations from different auto manufacturers.

[dakrisht]

Your Ford certainly doesn't do even most of the above. Your Ford has pedestrian awareness and active lane departure systems? It has radar to brake and accelerate during traffic? Definitely not.

[deeviant]

Yes, it has lane assist(this is resistive rather than active, it stiffens the steering wheel making it harder to move in a direction that leaves the lane, rather that correcting coarse actively), active breaking (with adaptive cruise control, light/sound alerts otherwise) for collisions with car, terrain and pedestrian.

It also has blind spot sensor, adaptive cruise control, driver wakefulness alerts. It's adaptive cruise works beautiful, but unfortunately is designed to cut out below 10 MPH, which is a bit annoying in stop and go traffic. It does do automated parallel parking as well, and it rocks at that, it parks in spots I wouldn't dare.

It really strikes a good balance between relying on human and computer-assist.

Also, I think you have a strange definition of "certainly".

[bri3d]

http://owner.ford.com/how-tos/vehicle-features/safety/lane-k...

Many (most?) Ford models have had adaptive cruise control available as an option for years.

The Mondeo also got pedestrian awareness in Europe for 2015.

The attitude in your comment is strange considering that the grandparent post you wrote specifically points out that this technology is licensable between manufacturers. Why would Ford not be buying the same modules everyone else is?

[nateguchi]

There's quite a few manufacturers that have this technology other than Mercedes

[dakrisht]

Not all of it, some of it - yes. In particular, the Blind Spot assist systems are prevalent in a few different manufacturers.

The more advanced "self-driving" systems are all Mercedes-Benz technology that is part of their high-end vehicles (and not a standard option). Remember, Mercedes-Benz holds over 80,000 patents on this stuff and more coming all the time. There's no doubt they are pioneers in vehicle safety systems including self-driving cars.

Edit: Mercedes-Benz actually omitted quite a few even more advanced "self-driving" features from their new S-Class since, even though the technology was ready, regulatory requirements and drivers themselves were not ready for pure self-driving vehicles. (Taken from an intervew with Marc Andreessen on the new technologies in the S-Class).

[nateguchi]

Well, just glancing at Volvo's website, their V40 car has Imminent impact braking, pedestrian collision avoidance, active cruise control (same as distronic plus), lane keeping assistance and blind spot assist.

Additionally they have automatic parking.

Missing from this is only the driver alertness detection.

EDIT: relevant link http://www.volvocars.com/uk/explore/pages/innovation-areas.a...

[brc]

MB have been working on this stuff for decades.

Often they develop these things in conjunction with a supplier like Bosch. They then get a period of exclusivity and then Bosch/whoever are free to sell the systems to other companies.

That's why you can look at an S-Class and figure out what's going to be in an ordinary car in 10 years time. ABS, Airbags, pre-tensioners, stability control, adaptive cruise-control - not all were MB inventions or even debuted on an S-Class, but all have been features of an S-Class long before everything else.

[nikhizzle]

I believe they all get it from mobileye with some manufacturers getting an exclusive license for some period of time.

[psycovic23]

Nope. They built it themselves.

[dharma1]

S-class is a high end Merc, but these features are also on the new 2014 C-class.