Glad to see this but I'm more interested in Level 4 buses for public transport. These are starting to pop up around the world, and mean driverless buses can follow fixed routes without drivers. When are we going to see cities served by thousands of these vehicles? That would revolutionize public transport.
I have my doubts that drivers are the bottleneck when it comes to public transportation though
Next city near me in Northern Germany has serious issues finding bus drivers and has been operating on some kind of backup plan due to not having enough drivers available. Drivers are an important bottleneck.
The driver costs money continuously - the AI maybe only once. Especially if it is a small bus they are driving, somewhere rather rural, cost for the driver is a large percentage of the total cost.
You're crazy if you think any company is going to release AI driving for a one time cost.
There's a lot of stuff Mercedes does that I don't like (subscriptions, blech), but if you have a car accident with their Drive Pilot engaged,Mercedes takes full legal liability for the crash.
That has my respect.
$2500 a year, only works below 65 mk/h, only on approved highways (if it sees a pedestrian it turns off). You can look away but can't close your eyes for example.
I get that its a cool stepping stone to have level 3 self driving actually available in a car, but fuck this implementation of a glorified traffic jam AI.
It turns off when it sees a pedestrian? So if it's cruising down the highway at 65 and there's a hitchhiker, or a broken down car and driver on the side of the road, your autopilot will just shut off? That seems dangerous.
"The system will also deactivate when other requisite conditions are not met, as well as when an emergency vehicle is detected, when approaching toll roads, in construction or special regulation zones, or if a pedestrian or cyclist is detected."
From the article, I guess there shouldn't be pedestrians on highways..