The manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is allowed to put its Level 3 technology on the road in California.
Mercedes Benz has just announced that its Level 3 system called “DRIVE PILOT” has been approved for operation throughout the State of California.
Mercedes Benz DRIVE PILOT is already approved in Germany. This allows you to take your hands off the steering wheel on the freeway and focus on other things for a short time. But you have to be able to quickly take control again. If the human does not take over the steering wheel again within this time, the car stops and activates the hazard warning lights.
The vehicle has various sensors, including lidar. The DRIVE PILOT system even uses microphones to detect approaching emergency vehicles and a wet road sensor in the wheel well. With redundant steering and brake actuators and an on-board electrical system, Mercedes electric vehicles with DRIVE PILOT are equipped with fail-safe devices in the event that a system fails.
This is why Mercedes-Benz is one of the few automobile manufacturers to have received Level 3 autonomous driving certification from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). So far the system was in Nevada approved and now it’s coming to California. In the US, the car will go up to 40 MPH, or about 65 kilometers per hour, in autonomous mode.