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There’s been so much buzz around autonomous driving over the past five years, it can almost be hard to keep track of individual developments. But the efforts of global automakers all have one thing in common: nobody has a functional, fully driverless vehicle available to the public... yet.
But that idea comes closer to reality with each passing year, and as we close out 2022, it’s with an exciting update from Mercedes-Benz on its progress toward full self-driving.
Mercedes and technology partner Bosch announced that they’d received approval for use of jointly developed Level 4 autonomous driving features — though both the application and location are quite specific.
The pioneering Level 4 self-driving feature enables Mercedes-Benz customers owning an S Class or EQS produced from July 2022 onwards to pre-book parking at Stuttgart Airport in Germany via an app. Customers can drop off vehicles at a specific garage outfitted with related technology, then head straight to their flights. That’s because the fully-automated software can enable the vehicles to park themselves. Even better, when the drivers return, they can call their vehicles to return using that same app.
The software reportedly relies on sensors that can help the vehicles operate safely by detecting objects in their path. This exciting development brings Level 4 driving capabilities to the general public if, say, you happen to be in Germany, at this airport, and using an equipped Mercedes vehicle.
That said, the advancement is exciting in the sense that it’s never yet been done by another automaker. But even Mercedes admits that the technology may be ready before the willing public is. According to the automaker’s website, “Today’s discussion no longer revolves around whether the technology will deliver on its promise but whether people want what the technology can deliver.”
Image Credit: Mercedes