EQS and S class
The Mercedes-Benz S-class and EQS are allowed to drive independently in the US state of California. Mercedes has received approval from the local government to offer Drive Pilot autonomous driving.
A year and a half ago, Mercedes-Benz became the first car manufacturer to win a coveted UN approval for autonomous driving. This was an important impetus for local governments to also approve this. In Germany, this approval was already granted last year and the EQS and S-class have therefore been able to drive autonomously (level 3) for some time now. Now, just after the state of Nevada, the US state of California also follows, according to reports Reuters.
It doesn’t seem like more than a small victory for Mercedes-Benz, but it is quite a big step. After all, California is known as a very progressive state in this area and is of course also the state where a lot of such technology is being developed. That Mercedes-Benz is the first to offer autonomous driving to all its customers is quite something. It trumps Tesla, for example, which undoubtedly had hoped to be out of the conditional test phase with its Full Self-Driving (FSD) by now.
It must be said that you can do less with Drive Pilot than what the beta testers can do with Tesla’s FSD. After all, this allows you to simply drive the car to a destination entered by you, while Mercedes’ Drive Pilot is only allowed on the highway and works up to 64 km / h. It is therefore mainly intended to hand over traffic jams. The big difference, however, is that it is now allowed in California to let Drive Pilot do the work itself. You can, for example, read a newspaper in the meantime, as long as you are able to intervene when Drive Pilot asks and the system sees that you have your eyes open. In Teslas, drivers still have to keep their hands on the wheel and remain alert to what the system is doing.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl