Tesla is uniquely risk tolerant for better or worse. You also don’t hear about people getting into accidents in a BMW on self driving because they don’t make the same claims and have tons of safeguards.
Tesla is uniquely risk tolerant for better or worse. You also don’t hear about people getting into accidents in a BMW on self driving because they don’t make the same claims and have tons of safeguards.
> Mercedes says that Drive Pilot will only operate during daylight hours at speeds up to 40 mph on “suitable freeway sections and where there is high traffic density.”
> While the system is active, drivers must keep their faces visible to the vehicle’s in-car cameras at all times, but can turn their head to talk to a passenger or play a game on the vehicle’s infotainment screen. Drivers can’t crawl into the back seat to take a nap, for instance. The system will disengage if the driver’s face is obscured or an attempt is made to block access to the in-car cameras. Presumably the system will deactivate itself if it detects the driver is sleeping or operating the car while impaired.
<40 mph, specific freeways only, does not make any kind of lane change or exit autonomously. I think any carmaker with a decent off-the-shelf lane keeping feature could make a liability claim in this scenario. It's not a measure of the technology.
IMO it's a misleading marketing tactic to position themselves competitively as having any kind of self-driving technology by recognizing that you can play games with the SAE levels to make the system sound impressive.
It initiates a radical paradigm shift that permits the vehicle to take over the dynamic driving task under certain conditions in heavy traffic or congestion situations on suitable sections of freeway currently up to a speed of 60 km/h. This ultimate luxury experience enables customers to win back precious time when in the car through relaxation or productivity. For instance, they can communicate with work colleagues via in-car office tools, write messages and emails via the head unit, browse the internet or just sit back, relax and watch a movie." [1]
I'm confused where you see the opportunity for any ambiguity or misunderstanding. Even the name "SAE Level 3 DRIVE PILOT" tells you the limitations. If you want misleading, look at what Tesla's pulling with their "Full Self Driving".
In the end, users only care about what a feature enables them to do, not how impressive the tech behind it is. Being able to relax and watch a movie while sitting in busy traffic is a great value proposition.
P.S. Found a good article on it: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/mercedes-benzs-level-3-...
[1] https://group.mercedes-benz.com/innovation/case/autonomous/d...