How close is Mercedes to selling a ‘self-driving’ car?

Self-driving cars are a big debate. In 2023 Tesla was forced to recall over two million cars (or rather, over-the-air update them) after it was ruled the system did not do enough to detect if the driver was still paying attention to the road. There have been well-documented fatal accidents. Meanwhile companies like Waymo and GM’s ‘Cruise’ have been embroiled in legal opposition. The mythical ‘car that drives you home from the pub while you sleep off a few beers’ doesn’t seem at all imminent.

However, work on them continues, and Mercedes is aiming to hit the front. This year it will begin selling its electric EQS saloon with a LiDAR-controlled ‘Level 3’ autonomous drive function in Nevada and California.

Mercedes-Benz's chief technology officer Markus Schäfer told TopGear.com it was “very special to us” to be the first car company allowed sell a Level 3 car in the USA. “We are the only ones having the license to operate Level 3 cars.” You’ll spot them thanks to turquoise marker lights, designed to alert law enforcement to the fact the car is controlling itself.

So, what’s his expert take on the push for more driver ‘assistance’ systems, and how far are we from truly robotic cars?

“I'm a big fan of exactly this name - driver ‘assistance’. It should assist you. It should not annoy you. If I'm in some cars I'm so nervous what the car is going to do next and my blood pressure is high! I'm not sure if something's going to happen the next second.

"Our Level 2 [autonomous driving] system has this kind of approach [to only assist you]. That’s our development goal on Level 2 systems: to give you this kind of relaxation and assistance, to make your driving easier. It centres in the road, it overtakes, now the new cars have this lane change feature there, but it's not taking any risky manoeuvres, I would say.”

A follow-up question, then: has the conversation slightly changed in the last ten years, from ‘who can produce the first fully autonomous car’ to ‘who can produce the most subtle ADAS?’

“You're on the point. That's why we have two offerings there. So we have the very advanced Level 2 systems, but in my opinion, it really gives you a benefit driving long distances. It relaxes you. You get out of the car and I mean, it was an enjoyable ride and your blood pressure is not going up.

"But going to the next level, it's a Level 3 car. It's a Level 3 car and there's no mode confusion. No ‘what mode am I in now? Can I trust the car? What is the car doing next? Can I take my hands off [the steering wheel] or not?’ So there's a clear distinction that we do.

"It's a Level 2 system in the car that's the current offering. Very advanced. And we offer a Level 3 system, where you really can take your hands off, you can take your eyes off, you can perform other things and there's no more confusion.

"But if you take a Level 2 to the extreme, where you mix it in with some Level 3 features and give you another Level 3 car, then I think you're creating very, very often an uncomfortable situation, which is not really an assistant system.”