Mercedes -Benz officially announced on January 26 that the company has become the world’s first car brand to obtain SAE Level 3 certification in the US market.
Initially launched in Germany in May 2022, the DRIVE PILOT system is the world’s first SAE Level 3 system that complies with UN-R157 legal requirements. Since the German Federal Motor Transport Administration (KBA) approved the landing of the system, it has laid the foundation for its use in the international market. As long as local regulations allow it, it can be mass-produced and put on the road. (For details, see: Why did Germany and Mercedes-Benz give the green light for L3 autonomous driving?)
The launch of the Mercedes-Benz DRIVE PILOT system in the United States also made Nevada the first state in the United States to confirm that L3 autonomous driving can be legally used on the road.
It should be emphasized that L3 automatic driving is still “conditional automatic driving”, not “full automatic driving”, and it still needs to operate in an environment that meets the conditions of use.
However, compared with the L2 system, the L3 system has undergone fundamental changes. After turning on the L3 level system, the driver’s hands can leave the steering wheel, and the eyes of the eyes can also leave the road.
Simply put, the “driver” at this time will become a “passenger”, and the car will be fully autonomous. The state of the previous L2 level, which was dominated by humans and supplemented by machines, will change.
This is why Level 2 is called “Automatic Driving Assistance” and Level 3 is called “Conditional Autopilot”.
Mercedes-Benz officially stated that the DRIVE PILOT system is currently the only mass-produced SAE Level 3 system authorized to be used on public highways in the United States, which meets the requirements of Chapter 482A of Nevada for autonomous vehicles. DRIVE PILOT will allow driving The driver can hand over the dynamic driving task to the vehicle under certain conditions.
It is reported that Mercedes-Benz officials are also preparing to implement the DRIVE PILOT system in California this year, and its certification documents have been submitted to the state authorities for approval.
In this regard, Markus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer of the Mercedes-Benz Group said: “In modern society, time is one of the most precious resources, and giving time back to our customers is part of our strategy to manufacture the most ideal cars in the world. Core elements. The DRIVE PILOT system is an important step toward this goal and puts us at the forefront of innovation in the all-important field of autonomous driving. Certification in Nevada marks the start of its global rollout and It marks the dawn of a new era.”
According to the official information, the DRIVE PILOT system can be used on some expressway sections and sections with high traffic density. To put it simply, its applicable scenarios include highways with relatively simple road conditions and congested roads with dense vehicles and low speeds.
According to reports, the maximum speed supported by the DRIVE PILOT system is 40 miles per hour, which is equivalent to 64 kilometers per hour. Control buttons are located on the edge of the steering wheel, on the left and right above the thumb grooves. Once the conditions are right to turn on, the system lights up a light on the control button to indicate its availability.
When the driver presses the button to activate DRIVE PILOT, the system will automatically control the speed and following distance, and precisely control the vehicle to drive in its lane. In addition, route profiles, road events and traffic signs are taken into account by the system. The system also reacts to and independently handles unexpected traffic situations, such as avoiding obstacles in the lane or applying the brakes.
When the DRIVE PILOT is activated, the applications on the central display in the car that would have been blocked while driving can be used normally.
In terms of hardware configuration, the DRIVE PILOT system uses many advanced sensors, including ultrasonic radar, millimeter wave radar, lidar, camera, high-precision positioning unit and road humidity sensor. In addition, there are redundant steering and brake actuation systems and on-board electrical systems, so that even if one of these systems fails, it can maintain controllability.
It is worth emphasizing that although L3 automatic driving can already “take hands and eyes off”, the driver cannot sleep a lot, that is, when the system prompts that human takeover is required, the driver must ensure that he can take over immediately.
Since the L3 level is called “conditional automatic driving”, it means that when the vehicle enters a road condition that no longer meets the conditions of use, the system may still need to be taken over by humans at any time.
If the driver fails to take over control after the takeover prompt is issued until the takeover time expires, for example, if there is a serious health problem, the DRIVE PILOT system will gradually brake the vehicle to a standstill and activate the double flashing warning lights at the same time.
Once the vehicle stops, the Mercedes-Benz emergency call system will be activated, and the doors will be unlocked at the same time, so that relevant personnel can enter the car for rescue.
In terms of positioning capabilities, the official said that the high-precision positioning unit used by the DRIVE PILOT system is more powerful than the traditional GPS. In addition to data collected by lidar, millimeter-wave radar, ultrasonic sensors and cameras, digital high-definition maps provide three-dimensional images of the road and surrounding environment, as well as information about route characteristics, traffic signs and special traffic events )Information.
This high-definition map is different from the map of the navigation device, and its accuracy can reach the centimeter level, and it has detailed intersection and route models. Map data is stored in the backend data center and can be updated continuously.
In addition, images of these map information are stored on each vehicle, which can be constantly compared with background data and updated locally as needed.
According to the official plan, the DRIVE PILOT system will be launched as an option, and the applicable models include the 2024 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS sedans sold in the US market. In the European market, Mercedes-Benz officially gave a quotation for the DRIVE PILOT system in May 2022. The optional price of the S-class sedan is 5,000 euros, and the EQS is 7,430 euros.
As for the landing time, the official said that the first batch of production vehicles will be delivered in the US market in the second half of 2023.
At this time, another information was revealed, that is, in the auto market in 2023 and 2024, EQS will not only continue to be sold, but also be the core product of the Mercedes-Benz brand in the field of autonomous driving.
This may to a certain extent respond to a recent rumor in the market: foreign media reported that Mercedes-Benz plans to abandon the EQ brand as early as 2024 when the new generation of models is launched.
At the 2016 Paris Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz officially released the electric vehicle brand EQ, and in 2019 the first model of the EQ brand, the EQC, was released. Over the years, Mercedes-Benz has invested a lot of resources in the EQ brand, and its strategic goal is to achieve pure electric power by 2030.
However, after these years of promotion, the sales volume of the EQ brand is still limited. According to official data, Mercedes-Benz will deliver 2,043,900 new cars to global users in 2022, and new energy models accounted for 319,200, accounting for 15% of its total sales, including 117,800 pure electric models.
However, in the Chinese market, the world’s largest market for Mercedes-Benz, the EQ brand has been under great pressure from local Chinese car companies. It is reported that in November 2022, the combined sales of the three models of EQA, EQB, and EQC will only be 18.
This has also become one of the reasons for the rumor that “Mercedes-Benz plans to abandon the EQ brand”. In addition, Kang Linsong, chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, also said: “The shift from internal combustion engine vehicles to pure electric vehicles makes EQ Brands appear redundant.”
However, in the US market, the performance of the EQ brand is still remarkable. In the fourth quarter of 2022, EQS sales of 4,339 are on par with the S-Class’ 4,551 sales.
Therefore, Zhijiajun believes that it is not credible for Mercedes-Benz to abandon the EQ brand in the short term. Even if its performance in the Chinese market is not satisfactory, even if the group’s senior management is a little vacillating about the value of the EQ brand, it is far from being considered.” give up”.
Zhijiajun also asked Mercedes-Benz China about the official attitude to this rumor today (January 29), but has not received a reply as of press time.
At the product level, the EVA platform, the main pure electric platform of the EQ brand, is making great efforts to launch new cars. It is a medium and large pure electric vehicle platform of the EQ brand. EQE, EQE SUV, EQS SUV and other models are all derived from this platform.
Among them, EQE has just completed domestic sales in the Chinese market, and Beijing Benz’s new Shunyi plant has just started operation, marking that the EVA platform with EQE as the first model to be launched will begin to exert its strength in the Chinese market.
In addition, there is an MMA platform, which is a pure electric platform specially developed for small and medium-sized cars. Together with the EVA platform, it has become the pillar of the Mercedes-Benz Group’s electrification transformation, and the EQ brand is still promising.
From this perspective, there is no reason for the EQ brand to stop suddenly.
This article is from the WeChat public account “AutoR Zhijia” (ID: zhinengqiche) , author: Yi Li, 36 Krypton is authorized to publish.
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Event Tracking
- 2023-01-31 Mercedes-Benz won the world’s first L3 autonomous driving certification: you don’t need to look at the road to drive and Mercedes-Benz is responsible for accidents
- 2023-01-28 The United States approves the commercial use of Mercedes-Benz’s first L3 system, driving without hands, and the car factory pays for accidents
- 2023-01-12 It is reported that Mercedes-Benz will abandon the EQ brand in 2024 and turn to electric vehicles in an all-round way
- 2023-01-06Mercedes -Benz: 10,000 charging stations will be built in North America, Europe and China by 2030
- 2023-01-06 Mercedes-Benz will cooperate with Nvidia to build the next generation factory
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