For many people, the theme of “digital transformation” conjures up a vague feeling somewhere between fascination and uncertainty. Fascination because digital technologies can drastically simplify complex activities, find amazing solutions and offer unique opportunities. Uncertainty because futuristic visions of complete automation seem to leave little room for human individuality and our ability to act.

“At Mercedes-Benz we are convinced that the digital transformation can only be designed successfully if it is deeply anchored within society. Humans and access to data must be at the heart of a digital transformation,” says Jasmin Eichler, Head of Research Future Technologies at Daimler AG. “That is why we are also working on solutions in the field of digitalisation which place the freedom, decision-making autonomy and individuality of human beings at their centre. We aim to create a balance between humans and technology. The approach we are following here is “Human first”.”

Because there are diverse issues around digital transformation, Mercedes-Benz is basing its endeavours on “open innovation”. Stakeholders from all different industries – business, research, art, industry or biology – are brought together for shared research purposes. The results are projects which consider the future of mobility from new perspectives and which produce exceptional problem-solving approaches. Mercedes-Benz presented some of these collaborative projects at the FutureInsight event in Berlin.

A future with autonomous vehicles

How do we establish trust between humans and machines? Autonomous driving is going to be an integral part of our future. When it comes to this topic, Mercedes-Benz regards empathy and trust as central factors for the success and acceptance of the transformation. The concept of “informed trust” takes on great importance here: “People need to be able to quickly and reliably gauge what an autonomous vehicle is going to do next. The vehicle must therefore provide information about its intentions in a way that people can grasp immediately and intuitively,” says Alexander Mankowsky, a futurologist at Daimler. Based on this information, the person needs to be able to decide what they are going to do and how they are going to respond to the situation. Among other innovations at FutureInsight, for this purpose Mercedes-Benz introduced concepts for a “cooperative vehicle”. Projects with external providers demonstrate further possibilities for how future autonomous vehicles could communicate and work together with their surroundings.

The cooperative vehicle – know intuitively what the car intends to do

The cooperative vehicle, based on an S-Class, features 360-degree light signalling. Turquoise light strips in the windscreen, the radiator grille, the headlamps, the exterior mirrors and the lower area of the windows indicate to pedestrians and surrounding traffic that the vehicle is operating in autonomous mode. Lamps on the roof provide information about the next actions that the vehicle is going to perform. Slow flashing means that the vehicle is braking. A stationary light shows that the vehicle is in autonomous driving mode, regardless whether it is driving or at a standstill. The lights on the roof also follow the movements of people at the side of the road and in front of the vehicle to signal that the vehicle is aware of their presence. In doing so, the cooperative vehicle recreates the natural eye contact that would have taken place between the driver and pedestrians. Rapid flashing indicates that it is about to move off.

The cooperative S-Class also informs its surroundings that it is about to enter into operation while it is still at the side of the road. The light strips around the vehicle emit an appropriate light signal. The exterior mirrors fold out and first the rear of the vehicle lifts up followed by the front. These movements resemble a living thing that is waking up and stretching. People can understand this communication intuitively.

Study shows pedestrians wish for 360-degree communication in turquoise

360-degree light signalling is particularly important when it comes to keeping pedestrians informed. This finding is the result of several light studies that Mercedes-Benz has conducted at its test facility in Sindelfingen, as well as at the recently opened site in Immendingen under the direction of Stefanie Faas from Daimler’s Innowerkstatt (innovation workshop). The research looked at how pedestrians react to different signaling autonomous vehicles in various traffic situations. It became clear that light signalling has a strong effect on the acceptance of autonomous driving vehicles, as well as on how safe pedestrians feel. In particular, people wish for light signalling in situations where there was before interaction with the driver. For example, people are used to seeking eye contact with a driver when they wished to cross the road. If light signalling is communicating that a vehicle is in the autonomous driving mode, pedestrians can feel safe even if the vehicle occupants are obviously not paying attention to what is happening in traffic. The majority of participants in the study preferred turquoise as the signalling colour. All participants favoured a 360-degree display. Mercedes-Benz is also contributing the results of the study on the theme of “autonomous driving” to SAE International, an international organisation dedicated to advancing mobility technology. There Mercedes-Benz recommends the use of turquoise, a colour which, up to this point, has not been used in the automotive sector to enable 360° signalling.

Visions of the future: the vehicle body as a means of communication

Going beyond the studies and the light signalling demonstrated based on the cooperative vehicle, Mercedes-Benz is already concerning itself with longer-range visions, which are intended to enable “informed trust” between humans and machines. Informed trust contrasts with blind trust and demands a certain knowledge of the object. Here the entire outer skin of the vehicle becomes a communication medium for 360-degree communication. The conventional body is transformed into a “digital exterior”.

Mercedes-Benz showed a first step in this direction back in 2015 with the F015 research vehicle. Among other features, this has a digital grille, which can be used as a communication medium. A year later the Vision Van, an electrically powered van with integral delivery drones for transporting parcels over the last mile, picked up on this motif. This is fitted with digital LED grilles at the front and rear, which the vehicle can use to warn traffic behind, for example, with messages such as “Vehicle stopping”. In 2018 the Vision URBANETIC, a mobility concept for on-demand, efficient and sustainable mobility, took this design further. The concept comprising an autonomous drive platform with interchangeable modules for transporting cargo and passengers can communicate with its surroundings by means of “digital shadowing” on the body. For example, the shadow of a pedestrian will be displayed when the vehicle’s 360-degree sensors perceive someone nearby. Due to this interaction, the pedestrian can feel confident that the vehicle has detected them and can act accordingly. Building on these innovations, Mercedes-Benz is now working on other solutions that provide vehicle occupants and passers-by with the same information about the vehicle’s perceptions and subsequent actions. In addition, the vehicle occupants should be able to decide what the vehicle communicates outwardly. This creates a cocooning effect inside the vehicle so that the vehicle feels like a protected space for its passengers.

Groove – interaction via reactive surfaces

The “Groove” project – a collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and the designers at Studio 7.5 in Berlin – is exploring the communicative potential of reactive surfaces. There is also a focus on collaboration between humans and autonomous vehicles. They developed a mobile, manoeuvrable membrane, which perceives its environment and responds to it in a similar way to a sea anemone. The aim of the project is to use these modes of expression to communicate an autonomous system’s processes and intentions to its surroundings. This should improve the interaction between humans and machine.

Polygon – different dimensions of informed trust based on animations

In collaboration with Japanese animation studio Polygon Pictures, Mercedes-Benz has designed animations of different scenarios in which autonomous vehicles could build informed trust with humans. The basic idea when designing animes is that a lot of emotion is expressed in a few strokes. The key issue that this project concerns itself with is therefore: How can these basic principles be used for intuitive communication between human and machine?

Answers are provided by, among other scenarios, the “AICAR” which shows an autonomous vehicle as an animated character. In addition to light signalling which informs of situations such as stopping, moving off or turning, the vehicle has various communication features that can express emotions.

Eye contact is the central focal point of a second scenario. Studies have shown that people intuitively seek eye contact with autonomous vehicles. In order to leverage this behaviour for active interaction between human and machine, Polygon Pictures has created a stylised eye design for autonomous vehicles. This makes it possible to present actions that the vehicle is about to perform and allows people to intuitively grasp what is going on.

A third scenario known as “AIMY” approaches the same topic in a somewhat more abstract way. Here the vehicle communicates with its environment via a target pointer. This target pointer consists of optical signals such as crosses or rays, which announce actions such as turning, accelerating or braking.

“See like a pony” – using the sensory system of animals as a model

The “SLAP – See like a pony” project orchestrated by Sabine Engelhardt from the Future Technologies division at Daimler AG is looking at the interaction between human and machine from a very unusual perspective. She is figuring out how ponies perceive their surroundings and drawing conclusions from that to assist with communication between people and autonomous cars. This approach first originated from Stanford professor Clifford Nass. In one of his lectures the sociologist compared autonomous cars to domestic animals: Their behaviour is predictable to a certain extent but there are, however, also actions which even humans cannot predict. Furthermore, communication between humans and animals chiefly involves body language – similar to the way in which it could take place between humans and machines. At the same time, neither animals nor machines can 100 percent predict and understand human actions. With the help of cameras, “SLAP” puts the researchers in the position to see the world from a pony’s perspective and in that way allows them to learn how they behave with humans. A familiar example is that horses show attention by the direction of their ears. This knowledge of attention helps considerably when interacting with the animals. The findings gleaned from that can be transferred to the design and technology of self-driving cars whereby their sensory attention can be made externally visible and can therefore be comprehended.

Maya Ganesh – the ethics of autonomous vehicles

Researcher and author Maya Ganesh is considering the topic of empathy in the context of the mobility of the future from the meta-perspective. She engages with the ethics of autonomous vehicles. In her lecture “Insight on Ethics; Society & AI” she discusses different aspects of ethics in the interaction between human and machine. Among other issues, she addresses the question of whether an autonomous vehicle can really be regarded as “autonomous”, i.e. whether it can really be understood as a “being” that has intelligence, consciousness, sensory perception and free will. At the same time she asks why people assume that all intelligence must be based on human intelligence, which is itself an arbitrary and changeable benchmark, and whether it is meaningful to apply human standards to the appraisal of machines. Based on these issues, she makes arguments for reclassifying the relationships between humans and machines – whether they be hybrids, cyborgs or robots – and as a consequence thereof for a re-evaluation of the ethical standards that apply to their interaction.

Leave your vehicle to park itself. Daimler and Bosch have teamed up to realise driverless parking (Automated Valet Parking) in the multi-storey car park at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Cars now proceed without a driver to their assigned parking space in response to a command issued by smartphone, without any need for the driver to supervise the manoeuvre. Automated valet parking marks an important milestone on the way to autonomous driving. The pilot solution at the multi-storey car park of the Mercedes-Benz Museum represents the world’s first infrastructure-supported solution for an automated drive-up and parking service in real-life dual operating mode. From the beginning of 2018, visitors to the museum’s multi-storey car park will be able to experience the convenient service at first hand and avoid spending time parking their cars.

Leave your vehicle to park itself. Daimler and Bosch have teamed up to realise driverless parking

“We are approaching autonomous driving faster than many people suspect. The driverless parking solution at the Mercedes-Benz Museum demonstrates in impressive fashion just how far the technology has come,” said Dr Michael Hafner, Head of Automated Driving and Active Safety at Mercedes-Benz Cars Development. “Parking will be an automated process in the future. By applying an intelligent multi-storey car park infrastructure and networking it with vehicles, we have managed to realise driverless parking substantially earlier than planned,” said Gerhard Steiger, Director of the Chassis Systems Control unit at Bosch.

As if by magic: to the parking space and back – fully automatically

Anyone can reserve a car using a smartphone app. The vehicle rolls into the pick-up area autonomously to start the journey. The return procedure is equally convenient: the customer parks the vehicle in the car park’s drop-off area and hands it back by smartphone app. After being registered by the intelligent system installed at the multi-storey car park, the car is started and guided to an assigned parking space.

Driverless parking is made possible by an intelligent multi-storey car park infrastructure from Bosch in conjunction with the vehicle technology from Mercedes-Benz. Sensors installed in the car park monitor the driving corridor and its surroundings and steer the vehicle. The technology on board the car performs safe driving manoeuvres in response to the commands from the car park infrastructure and stops the vehicle in good time when necessary. The sensors for the multi-storey car park infrastructure and the communications technology come from Bosch. Daimler is providing the private museum car park and pilot vehicles, defining the interface between infrastructure and vehicle together with Bosch and adapting the sensor technology and software in the vehicles accordingly.

First operating licence worldwide for driverless parking

The premiere on 24 July 2017 is to be followed by an extensive trial and commissioning phase. The project has been overseen from the outset by local authorities – Stuttgart regional council and the federal state transport ministry – and by appraisers from the TÜV Rheinland technical inspection authority with the aim of assessing the safe operation of the vehicle and car park technology. Before the driverless customer service goes into operation at the beginning of 2018 – as the first such application worldwide – final approval will be required from the licensing authority.

Everything will then be in place to enable automated valet parking to be made available to everyone at the Mercedes-Benz Museum’s multi-storey car park from the beginning of 2018. Bosch and Mercedes-Benz intend to use this project to acquire experience regarding users’ handling of automated valet parking. Other existing multi-storey car parks can be retrofitted with the infrastructure technology. For the operators of multi-storey car parks, driverless parking means more efficient use of the available parking space: up to 20 percent more vehicles fit into the same space.

With one eye on the road and another on a tiny green steering wheel icon emblazoned on the display in front of me, I watched as the all-new 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-Class drifted across the yellow lane marker. Just as the lefthand tires crested the line, the car proceeded to buzz the steering wheel to warn me, the driver, of an unsignaled lane departure.

No, you can’t nap behind the wheel of Mercedes’ semi-autonomous E-Class

“Oh, don’t give me that,” I hollered at the car, as I grabbed the wheel and jerked the mid-size luxury sedan back into the lane. “You’re the one doing the steering!”

Now back in my lane with the Mercedes mostly keeping itself in check, my heart sank a bit.

I felt disheartened because Mercedes’ new suite of semi-autonomous safety tech, Drive Pilot, simply didn’t feel as robust as Tesla’s Autopilot that I had tested on the very same stretch of freeways some eight months before.

During my test, the Model S was able not only able to stay planted within its lane, it also stayed almost perfectly centered in that lane. Comparatively, the E-Class struggled to even keep itself in a single lane — forget hopes of holding dead center.

While it’s too bad Drive Pilot isn’t as exacting as Tesla, I soon learned there was good reason for it. And, no, Tesla fanboys, it’s not because the Musk machine is better or more tech-heavy than the Mercedes. It’s far more complicated than that.

Drive Pilot

Drive Pilot is more than just Distance Pilot DISTRONIC (Mercedes speak for adaptive cruise control) and Steering Pilot (steering assist). Though the E-Class has those, too.

Drive Pilot also includes Active Lane Change Assist that will autonomously change lanes when a driver signals a lane change, Speed Limit Pilot that can read speed-limit signs and automatically lower its set cruising speed to the posted limit and Active Emergency Stop Assist that will bring the car to a stop in its lane and activate the emergency flashers on the freeway if the driver for some reason becomes unresponsive behind the wheel.

With all these things engaged, Mercedes representatives told me the car could drive itself down a well-marked and well-lit freeway without the driver touching the steering wheel for as many as 60 seconds at a time at speeds up to 81 mph. And most of the time, it worked as advertised.

When the car’s digital cameras recognized the lane markings, a small icon of a steering wheel about the size of a pea on the 12.3-inch instrument display went from grey to green. This meant the Steering Pilot was active and engaged in steering. While the lines were recognized by the system and the car was steering itself, I could keep my hands in my lap.

Once every 60 seconds (or less), the system would prompt me to perform some action to show I was still paying attention. To do so, I could either jiggle the steering wheel or touch one of the steering wheel’s two touchpads.

On a straight, well-marked freeway, following traffic ahead, the system worked great. However, as soon as lane markings on either side became too hard to read or simply dropped away, Steering Pilot would cut out — sans warning.

Really, the only indication the car wasn’t steering anymore was that the little steering wheel icon on the instrument display would go from green back to grey. If I didn’t notice this because I was paying attention to the road ahead, like I am supposed to, I could suddenly and rapidly find the car drifting out of its lane. This happened to me several times over the two days I tested it.

I’ll admit, Steering Pilot suddenly cutting out without warning irked me. The more I thought about it, and after speaking further with Mercedes representatives about the issue, the more Steering Pilot’s perceived lameness made sense. What’s more, it shouldn’t be viewed as a technical deficit but rather a safety benefit.

Via: Mashable

The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class is the world’s first standard-production vehicle to be awarded a test licence for autonomous driving in the US state of Nevada. In a world first and also in time for the leading trade fair for consumer technology Consumer Electronics Show “CES” in Las Vegas, three standard-production E-Class vehicles have been approved to drive themselves.

Mercedes-Benz at CES 2016

To allow autonomous driving functions to be tested, test vehicles previously had to be elaborately equipped with special hardware and software. This included additional sensors, modified steering and an adapted ESP. That is no longer the case with the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class. The standard-production vehicle is already extensively equipped with intelligent technology. This means that, for testing purposes, it is necessary merely to make some smaller software modifications to the DRIVE PILOT control unit.

Prof. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development, stresses: “The fact that Mercedes-Benz is the world’s first vehicle manufacturer to be awarded such a licence shows that we are a step ahead when it comes to autonomous Driving. The new E-Class is therefore another big step to the fully automated vehicle. ”

“Nevada is proud to serve as the location where Daimler, an international automotive leader, can explore and test the possibilities of its cutting-edge autonomous vehicle,” said Governor Brian Sandoval. “By collaborating with revolutionary, sustainable and creative endeavors Nevada is working to be at the forefront of emerging innovative technologies.”

Self-driving tests are permitted on all interstates and state highways in Nevada, human drivers being required only for turning, merging and departing. The autonomous test drives in everyday traffic will be carried out by specially trained test drivers. Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (NDMV) rules also stipulate that there must be one passenger behind the wheel and a second passenger in the vehicle on test drives. The test vehicles are identified by a red licence plate reserved for autonomous driving.
Nevada passed regulations on autonomous driving back in June 2011 and is seen as a pioneer. The desert state’s road network, landscape and traffic volume are highly representative of road conditions in the USA. Two self-driving Daimler trucks have been in operation on public roads since May 2015.

With the S 500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE and the Future Truck 2025, Mercedes-Benz has already made the vision of autonomous driving reality. The new research vehicle F 015 Luxury in Motion has its world premiere at the Consumer Electronics Show, and provides a concrete example of the visionary ideas the company is developing with regard to autonomous driving of the future. With this self-driving luxury sedan Mercedes-Benz illustrates how the car is growing beyond its role as a mere means of transport and will ultimately become a private retreating space. This new way of traveling gives passengers the freedom to use their valuable time on the road in manifold ways.

Progressing from the self-propelled (“automotive”) to the self-reliant (“autonomous”) vehicle, Mercedes-Benz as a pioneer goes far beyond the purely technical realization of automated driving. The company’s experts also have to anticipate different outlooks and social trends. People are always at the center of such considerations. Just as the 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car and its successors revolutionized personal mobility and, as a consequence, society as a whole, the first self-driving cars will also bring about major changes.

“Anyone who focuses solely on the technology has not yet grasped how autonomous driving will change our society. The car is growing beyond its role as a mere means of transport and will ultimately become a mobile living space,” explains Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion

Expressive forerunner of a mobility revolution

With the huge amount of space in its lounge-like interior, the Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion takes the concepts of comfort and luxury to a new level. Every facet of the vehicle reflects perfectly the Mercedes way of interpreting the terms “modern luxury”, emotion and intelligence. This innovative four-seater is a forerunner of a mobility revolution, and this is immediately apparent from its futuristic appearance.

It is obvious that the F 015 represents the vision of a brand new vehicle concept just from its unusual proportions (length/width/height: 5220/2018/1524 millimeters), its seamless, monolithic exterior and its large LED light modules at the front and rear. A range of different lighting functions can be provided through these LED fields. At the same time, the vehicle communicates and interacts with the outside world by means of the LED fields. These LED fields show for example, if the F 015 is driving autonomously (blue) or is controlled manually (white).

The low-slung front end, smooth and streamlined roof line, flat front windshield and road-hugging rear end give the F 015 Luxury in Motion an extended and decidedly dynamic silhouette. The F 015 Luxury in Motion’s unusually large wheelbase of 3610 millimeters in combination with its short overhangs clearly show that the design focus was on providing the maximum possible space for the passengers.

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion

A lounge-like interior with an atmosphere of wellbeing

In the interior of the F 015 Luxury in Motion the designers have created a lounge-like space with a feel-good ambience characterized by elegance, quality and lightness. Sensual, flowing transitions and warm, organic materials such as open-pore walnut wood shaped into a three-dimensional veneer, and extremely soft ice white nappa leather contrast with clearly-defined metal and glass surfaces with a cool and technical feel.

The pivotal feature of the innovative interior concept is the variable seating system, with four rotating lounge chairs that allow a face-to-face seat configuration. In order to make getting in and out of the car easier, the electrically powered seats also swing outwards by 30 degrees as soon as the doors are opened. If necessary, the driver and front-seat passenger can also turn their eyes and attention towards the front – a prerequisite for manual driving. To this end the steering wheel extends automatically from the dashboard.

The leather-covered cushions of the lounge chairs are set in curved mounts of highly-polished aluminium. Each seating mount has a contrasting light band of blue LED lights and can also be manually swiveled.

One key aspect of the research vehicle is the continuous exchange of information between vehicle, passengers and the outside world. This is facilitated by six display screens harmoniously integrated into the instrument panel and the rear and side panels, which turn the interior of the F 015 Luxury in Motion into a digital arena. Passengers can interact intuitively with the connected vehicle through gestures, eye-tracking or by touching the high-resolution screens. Sensors recognize the passengers’ hands and offer them user interfaces within convenient reach that present appropriate operating options for each particular situation. Particle streams on the displays visualize the vehicle’s movement.

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion

Revolutionary vehicle structure

The high-strength body of the F 015 Luxury in Motion ensures optimum safety and supreme comfort for its passengers. At the same time, the bodyshell’s structure provides the ideal basis for the door concept that makes getting in and out especially easy, and for the communication-oriented seating featuring four lounge chairs in a face-to-face arrangement.

New materials and structures were used to develop the highly efficient “Smart Body Structure (SBS)” of the F 015. By cleverly combining carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), aluminum and high-strength steels in a way that matches the varying requirements exactly, the lightweight engineering experts were able to make the bodyshell 40 percent lighter compared with today’s production vehicles.

Another key element of the body design concept is the innovative saloon-door-style door system featuring rear-hinged rear doors. The front and rear doors can be opened and closed independently of one another. With an opening angle of 90 degrees for all doors, the spacious interior can be easily and comfortably accessed on both sides. B-pillars were not needed. A very sturdy interconnected system with mechanical locking elements ensures exemplary safety standards. These elements securely interlock the front and rear doors when they are closed at the same time as fixing them firmly to the roof frame and side skirts. The resulting composite load path allows an extremely high amount of energy to be absorbed in the event of frontal or side impact, with minimal intrusion into the passenger compartment.

The doors themselves have a crucial role to play in the vehicle’s passive safety concept. The crash-responsive beltlines underneath the side windows are vital here. The PRE-SAFE Structure, previously unveiled on the ESF 2009 Experimental Safety Vehicle and now further enhanced, offers maximum safety while taking up minimum space: in a side-on collision, these bodywork elements “inflate” in an instant, just like an airbag, allowing them to absorb as much impact energy as possible.

In addition, the bodyshell of the F 015 Luxury in Motion was designed to allow the impact-protected integration of an electric drive system with fuel cell. This is based on the pioneering F-CELL PLUG-IN HYBRID system seen in the F 125! research vehicle from 2011, and combines on-board generation of electricity with an exceptionally powerful and compact high-voltage battery. The pressure tank made from CFRP is designed to store the hydrogen.

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion

The vision: greater quality of life for all city dwellers

As a foundation for creating the F 015 Luxury in Motion, experts from all areas of Mercedes-Benz developed a future scenario entitled “City of the Future 2030+”, which considered many aspects of mobile living.

The greater the advance of urbanization, the greater is the desire of the individual to be able to retreat to a private sphere. Autonomous driving will become a given. As drivers are relieved of work and stress in situations in which driving is not enjoyable, the time gained while in their car takes on a whole new quality. Time and space will become the luxury of the future.

New technologies and forms of communication open up numerous new possibilities for interaction, both between the vehicle and its passengers and between the vehicle and other road users.

Autonomous cars also open up new possibilities for urban infrastructure design. Following the example of today’s low-emission zones in city centers, special “safety zones” that are only accessible to autonomous vehicles could be created. Urban space would be regained by autonomous vehicles parking themselves on the periphery.

In the shared space of the future, humans and machines share the roads. The “car-friendly city” is transformed increasingly into the “people-friendly city” without any loss of individual freedom. The divide between residential, recreational and traffic areas therefore melts away. The result is superior quality of life for all urban dwellers.

The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion

The road to autonomous driving

Even now, vehicles from Mercedes-Benz are capable of detecting many different hazardous situations out on the road and reacting as the situation demands – by means of autonomous braking, for instance. And from the C-Class through to the S-Class, there are already Mercedes-Benz models driving semi-autonomously on public roads today, equipped with features such as DISTRONIC PLUS with Steering Assist and the Stop&Go Pilot semi-autonomous traffic jam vehicle following function. Active Parking Assist with PARKTRONIC allows automated parking with active steering and brake control in both parallel and end-on spaces.

In August 2013, Mercedes-Benz demonstrated to great effect that autonomous driving is possible now, even in complex urban and rural traffic situations. The close-to-production Mercedes-Benz S 500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE completed the approximately 100-kilometer journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim fully autonomously, following the route Bertha Benz took in 1888 on the first ever long-distance drive by car.

Mercedes-Benz is setting the pace of development in the area of trucks, too – as the innovator and launcher of intelligent assistance systems. With its Future Truck 2025, the brand presented the world’s first truck to feature autonomous driving at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in September 2014. In July 2014, this one-off vehicle, based on the Mercedes-Benz Actros 1845, drove at speeds of up to 80 km/h in realistic traffic situations on a section of the A14 autobahn near Magdeburg.

As a global company, Mercedes-Benz has its sights set on autonomous driving worldwide. In order to factor in the differences in traffic and infrastructure in other markets, the experts also carry out testing in the USA, for example. In mid-September 2014, Mercedes-Benz became one of the first automotive manufacturers to be issued with an official license by the US state of California for testing self-driving vehicles on public roads there. In addition the company makes use of the USA’s largest test facility, the Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS).

Mercedes-Benz has rewarded its loyal Facebook followers with an early glimpse of its upcoming autonomous vehicle concept, or at least its arching roof, nearly a week before its official debut. That will take place during Daimler AG Chairman Dieter Zetsche’s keynote speech at the International Consumer Electronics Show on January 5 in Las Vegas.

Mercedes-Benz 2015 CES Concept

Precious little of the car is actually visible (we tried unsuccessfully to lighten the image to reveal more), and it was posted with a caption that simply reads, “The future will be bolder than you’ve ever imagined. #mbCES”. So all that we know is that it’s quite egg-like, and we can see the side of the taillamps and a hint of a gaping mouth in front. While the designers seem to have taken a “one-box” approach, it is very nearly the utter antithesis of a box.

We have seen this car before covered in camo and festooned with seemingly fake fender extensions that made it look like an engorged goldfish. In that report, we correctly identified the car as a CES concept and not something that would debut at a traditional auto show. Given that Dr. Z’s speech will concentrate on autonomous vehicle technology, we fully expect that the CES concept will drive itself onto the stage. What we don’t know is whether the car is fully electric or powered by a hydrogen fuel cell; each are equally possible.

While we will suspend judgment on its styling until we’ve seen the whole thing, we will say that it’s rare that we meet a one-box design that we really like, though this and this and this come to mind. While this Benz doesn’t resemble those vans in any way, it will, however, unmistakably look like the future.

The Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in Las Vegas today and fitting right in with the most innovative tech companies in the world is Mercedes-Benz. Taking an unconventional approach to showing the new C-Class, Mercedes is using an augmented reality app that brings the car to life with a digital preview of the vehicle prior to its world premiere at the Detroit Motor Show.

If you’re not familiar with CES, it’s the world’s most renowned and foremost show for entertainment electronics. And while you may not instantly associate Mercedes-Benz with electronics and technology, just take a look at the 2014 S-Class and their work on autonomous driving and you’ll understand that Mercedes isn’t just fitting ing, they are leading the pack in technological advancements.

“Everyone is talking about autonomous driving functions – we already have them in series production. Many people want to use the latest communications capabilities in their car – for us, this has long been reality with ‘digital drive style’, be it with COMAND Online or via the Digital DriveStyle app,” says Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, Management Board Member of Daimler AG responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development. “Mercedes-Benz vehicles offer the highest possible levels of safety with maximum comfort. They are intelligently connected and well on the way to becoming digital, automotive companions.”

2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Interior

C-E-S@CES: The Mercedes-Benz Show Stand in Las Vegas

Alongside the virtual C-Class, Mercedes-Benz is also presenting the E and the S-Class in real life at the CES. Thanks to the high rate of innovation at Mercedes-Benz, all three vehicles are bristling with driver assistance systems right through to partly autonomous driving functions like DISTRONIC PLUS with Steering Assist and Stop&Go Pilot. Mercedes-Benz calls this innovative combination of comfort and safety systems “Intelligent Drive”. With the aid of a comprehensive package of technologies, including stereo camera and multi-stage radar sensors, partly autonomous driving is today already a reality for Mercedes customers.

On the first day of the show, Mercedes-Benz is showcasing another vehicle highlight on the stand – the Concept S-Class Coupé. Its particularly impressive interior comes with a fully digital instrument panel and innovative operating concept. For instance, driver and passengers in the Concept S-Class Coupé no longer have to waste time searching through their digital music libraries. MoodGrid software, integrated into the vehicle in cooperation with Gracenote, compiles a selection from around 18 million songs in the cloud. This selection is designed specifically to suit the chosen mood and the individual taste of those listening.

2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Interior

Today, Tomorrow and the Day After – Insights into Telematics and Infotainment at Mercedes-Benz

Alongside real and virtual vehicles, the Mercedes-Benz show stand also offers insights into the world of telematics and infotainment. Visitors can enjoy an overview of current Mercedes-Benz apps and test the Digital DriveStyle app complete with car-to-x technology. Mercedes-Benz development engineers are also demonstrating how “wearable devices” like Google Glass or intelligent watches like the Pebble smart watch can be integrated into the vehicle telematics system to provide the customer with added value. Mercedes-Benz is also demonstrating how, in future, relevant vehicle data could be accessed conveniently from home via Vehicle Home.

With the “Predictive User Experience” prototype, Mercedes-Benz offers a look ahead to the revolutionary telematics and infotainment system of the future. Starting tomorrow on the Mercedes-Benz stand at the CES in Las Vegas, you can find out all about the innovations that will turn the vehicle of the future into an intelligent, automotive companion, how it will be able to recognize the desires, moods and preferences of driver and passengers and proactively predict and simplify the next operating steps. For more information go to: http://ces.mercedes-pressevents.com

2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Steering Wheel

Three World Premieres at the CES Show a High Pace of Innovation

Mercedes-Benz recently announced partnerships with Pepple Technology and Nest Labs. These alliances give Mercedes-Benz developers access to the latest hardware and application programming interfaces (APIs) from the two Silicon Valley based start-ups to create unique automotive experiences.

Mercedes-Benz will demonstrate information sharing and interactive communication between vehicle and Pebble smart watch. Thanks to the flow of information between vehicle and the smart watch, consumers who are away from their vehicles, will be able to glance at Pebble smart watch to review vehicle information. When hopping into their vehicle, Pebble smart watch will vibrate when vehicle needs to communicate to consumers certain alerts. These features will be released in spring of 2014 as part of Digital DriveStyle app.

Another world premiere is a partnership with Nest Labs to demonstrate a concept of connecting Mercedes-Benz vehicles to the Nest Learning Thermostat using Nest’s web APIs. Mercedes-Benz and Nest are demonstrating how this solution makes life easier and more convenient. The vehicle will interact with the Nest Thermostat so that your home will be at a comfortable temperature upon your arrival. With such intelligent links between the consumer’s home and vehicle, Mercedes-Benz is creating a new interactive experience to increase convenience for its drivers with the planned release in spring of 2014 as part of Digital DriveStyle app.

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, Mercedes-Benz and Google announced a partnership to bring Google services to Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The next phase of this partnership will be previewed at CES 2014 with the introduction of Google+ support in the award winning Digital DriveStyle app. Google+ support will be available in all vehicles fitted with the Drive Kit Plus hardware module, and will allow drivers to share updates to Google+, and review their Google+ streams both on screen and via text-to-speech. Mercedes-Benz is the world’s first automotive manufacturer to bring Google+ to their vehicles, with market availability expected on iOS in spring 2014.

2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Mercedes-Benz S-Class is “Best-Connected Vehicle of 2013”

Readers of German publications AUTO BILD and COMPUTER BILD have spoken: The Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the “Best-Connected Vehicle of 2013” according to the results of the reader poll conducted jointly by both magazines for the “Connected Car Award”. Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive took first place in the “Best Driver Assistance System Safety” category. The “Connected Car Awards” will be presented today at the CES to Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber, who will accept the awards on the Mercedes-Benz show stand.

Mercedes-Benz Honored as “Global Technology Innovator 2013”

Mercedes-Benz is also being honored with the Plus X Award “Global Technology Innovator 2013”. The recipient is chosen by a jury of experts and prominent figures from across 25 industries. Mercedes-Benz is receiving the Plus X Award for the Bertha Benz drive it undertook in summer of last year. The jury praised the first autonomous city and cross-country road trip with a Mercedes-Benz S-Class equipped with close-to-production technology as a “milestone that showed the future of mobility, thus making it tangible.”

Imagine you’re driving down the 405, the turn signal clicks on and your Mercedes S-Class accelerates to 65 mph as it changes into the left lane passing two slower vehicles, all while you’re focused on the latest New York Times best seller. Once arriving at your destination, your self-driving car finds a parking space, drops you off and with the push of an electronic key, parks itself in the space.

On your way home, you hit rush hour, but your S-Class keeps a safe and continuous distance in stop-and-go traffic, minimizing your accident risk and letting you focus on your phone call. Your S-Class then effortlessly finds its way home through the dense traffic of the city, navigating it’s way around other cars, trucks, buses, bicyclists and pedestrians, all unpredictable and moving at their own pace. In reduced traffic areas the Mercedes adheres to the prescribed walking pace because it can read traffic signs and thanks to radar sensors and stereo cameras it can also keep an eye on pedestrians.

This is the future of driving, this is autonomous driving.

Up until a few years ago engineers and computer scientists and movie directors developed such science fiction scenarios to provide a visionary outlook of the mobility of the 21st century. Think back to movies like Demolition Man or Minority Report. Thanks to the innovations from Mercedes, reality is catching up with those movies, all the driving described above are already possible and are being tested under real-life conditions with the help of the latest assistance systems from Mercedes-Benz. At the same time researcher and development engineers from electronics companies, automotive suppliers and universities are working on intelligent hardware and software intended to gradually make the vehicles autonomous.

Consequently, everyday life will face a profound revolution. Even though the vision of autonomous driving goes back many decades, it is only now that the combination of steadily increasing computing power, innovations in the area of sensor technology and the scanning of a vehicle’s surroundings paired with the rapid digitisation and networking of everyday life makes driverless mobility attainable. There are many possibilities to enhance traffic safety, to make mobility more efficient and environmentally compatible and to create unimaginable freedoms for all road users. However, before the goal of highly or even fully autonomous driving is reached, several development obstacles must be overcome in order to make the hardware and software faster, more intelligent and more affordable. At the same time the infrastructure, legislative bodies and society will have to prepare for this new dimension of motoring.

“Autonomous driving will gradually become reality”, states Ralf Guido Herrtwich, Head of Driving Assistance and Chassis Systems in Group Research and Advanced Engineering at Daimler. “Initially we will drive autonomously on certain classes of roads, starting with the freeways and maybe only under certain weather or lighting conditions. In the beginning the system will also have to be monitored rather than grabbing a book and tuning out completely.”

Herrtwich warns that placing too high an expectation on autonomous vehicles that manage without any human intervention would be dangerous. At slow speeds, in stop-and-go traffic or in parking situations, driverless mobility is just a few years away. But, at high speeds and in complex situations it will be necessary for the driver to be involved for at least the next ten years. Assistance systems already on the market have shown that partly autonomous vehicles are capable of lowering the amount of accidents by compensating for human errors and reacting faster than humanly possible.

Driving assistance systems, like the ones on the new 2014 Mercedes S-Class and others found as standard equipment on Mercedes-Benz models play a crucial role in autonomous driving. These technologies are responsible for merging comfort and safety, they include DISTRONIC PLUS proximity control, which keeps the desired distance from the vehicle travelling ahead. In addition, the STEER CONTROL steering assistance system, for example in the new Mercedes-Benz E- and S-Class, keeps the vehicle in the centre of the lane. However, drivers need to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times. Active Lane Keeping Assist can intervene when the driver unintentionally crosses a dotted line and the adjacent lane is occupied. The previous generation of the lane-keeping assistance system was already capable of detecting when a solid line was crossed. BAS PLUS Brake Assist with Cross-Traffic Assist cannot only prevent rear-end collisions, but can also intervene in the event of impending collisions with crossing traffic at junctions, if need be even including a full emergency stop. The latest version can now recognise pedestrians walking in front of the vehicle, warn the driver visually and audibly or in emergency situations even initiate autonomous braking.

These intelligent systems are made possible by an array of sensors that provide the vehicle with a 360-degree view of what is going on. Radar sensors of different ranges can “see” for a distance of up to 200 metres. Their input is complemented by a stereo camera behind the windscreen. Thanks to its two eyes, the camera can see a three-dimensional image of the area up to about 50 metres in front of the car and from there on – similar to human eyes to infinity – two-dimensionally.

All the data constantly streaming in are processed by various on-board systems, for instance, to calculate the trajectory of crossing vehicles or a pedestrian in anticipatory fashion, “read” traffic signs and issue appropriate warnings or initiate reactions. This makes it possible, for example, to let a vehicle drive or even autonomously overtake other vehicles safely at high speeds with the Mercedes-Benz Motorway Pilot system that has already undergone successful testing under real-life conditions.

Ideally autonomous automobiles equipped with the necessary sensor package, detailed map data and sufficient computing power can travel virtually any arbitrary route. One of the milestones for autonomous driving was the DARPA Grand Challenge, which was organised by the research and development branch of the US Department of Defense in the desert of Nevada in 2004 and 2005. Only on the second try did some of the expensive and hair-raisingly retrofitted vehicles manage to complete the route that stretched over 240 kilometres of very rough terrain.

“These two competitions inspired an entire research community that went to work with passion. This led to a quantum leap in technology, for sensors as well as applications. It is astonishing how far we have come this past decade”, says William “Red” Whittaker, professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh and, together with his team, one of the DARPA winners. Pioneers like Whittaker also know about the obstacles the researchers and engineers still have to eliminate. Firstly there is the question of when the necessary technology will be powerful, compact and affordable enough to have the required potential for series production. The LIDAR laser scanners used for instance in Google’s driverless cars are too expensive for series-production use. Such precision mechanics that constantly rotate on the roof provide a detailed 360-degree view of the surroundings. But they cost several times the value of the cars on which they are mounted.

“Many of the hardware and software components are still too expensive. They are plainly and simply unaffordable for normal consumers. If I had that much money, I’d buy a great sports car and drive myself”, jokes Emilio Frazzoli, professor of aerospace engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who normally deals with autonomous vehicles travelling by land or air.

This is why Daimler researchers like Ralf Guido Herrtwich are trying to offer an intelligently assembled array of radar sensors and cameras that collects the required information even without costly lasers in order to travel safely, efficiently and comfortably. “This technology ultimately mustn’t cost any more than today’s driving assistance systems, that is to say, a couple of thousand euros”, Herrtwich stresses. This also includes a continuously updated digital map that provides significantly more detail and may also remain more up to date than those of conventional navigation systems. Otherwise an autonomous vehicle will flounder if it encounters a new, non-registered construction zone or a recorded bend that deviates from the values measured by the on-board sensors. However, vehicles can assist each other in creating such new real-time maps because theoretically every car is able to record the route it travels and to feed the route data into databases.

Experts like CMU professor Whittaker expect autonomous vehicles to see the world differently. Their navigation aids have little in common with the combination of conventional maps and superimposed images we know from today’s assistance systems. “We are already able to create three-dimensional models of our environment that are better and more detailed than the human eye would ever be able to perceive”, says Whittaker of the initial prototypes. Such super-realistic models of the environment are generated partly on board and – thanks to mobile broadband access to the internet in future vehicles – partly in the Cloud.

Not only the vehicles need to evolve, the surrounding infrastructure does as well. Companies like Daimler have long researched so-called car-to-x communications that allow vehicles to exchange data with each other and their surroundings, including road signs and traffic cameras mounted above the road.

In April the Los Angeles metropolitan area became the first city in the world to synchronise all its 4500 traffic lights. Magnetic sensors in the road and hundreds of cameras feed their data into a central computer that dynamically controls all traffic lights to speed up the traffic flow of seven million daily commuters. During rush hour the system can phase the traffic lights only for bus lanes while other vehicles have to wait. “Especially for driving in an urban area surrounded by hundreds of thousands of other vehicles we already have a wealth of information as well as the infrastructure for lowering the costs and complexity of autonomous driving”, MIT researcher Frazzoli reflects. “A car can use its surroundings and other vehicles for its eyes and ears”.

Besides all the technical advances that are happening rapidly this also requires another change that has already begun. Society at large and legislative bodies have to rethink what constitutes the nature of a vehicle and of the modern transportation system overall. Because what would be possible technically is frequently legally impermissible. The Vienna Convention on Road Traffic from 1968 determines who may steer a car: “Every driver must have control of his vehicle at all times or be able to lead his animals”. Nobody thought of a computer of whatever kind at the wheel 45 years ago. And thus questions about certification and insurance as well as liability in the event of accidents are still a grey area.

Some legislators have tackled the issue. The US states of Nevada, California and Florida were the first to pass laws that govern the certification and operation of autonomous automobiles. This provides an incentive to companies to test their prototypes there and serves as a role model for one of the world’s largest automobile markets. Should the US establish national rules for autonomous vehicles, the EU and China would soon follow suit. Until then, autonomous driving will continue to be relegated to narrowly defined areas of application where people may never really take their hand and eyes off the steering wheel.

“We build all the systems in a way that ensure the driver regains full control the moment he or she wants to take over. Our systems are fully dedicated to providing support and relief”, says Daimler researcher Herrtwich. In his mind the transition from partly to fully autonomous systems is not only a matter of the technical capabilities of the systems, but goes hand in hand with the driver’s growing trust. “Once you personally experience that such a system works, then you trust it in more and more situations.“

That is precisely what people seem to do if they are members of the group called ‘digital natives’, that is to say, all those who grew up surrounded by digital devices and services and in many cases willingly and completely count on technology. They hope that autonomous vehicles will relieve them of performing tedious routine tasks, such as commuting to and from work. People who try to talk on the phone, write something on their smartphone or even read their emails while driving will mostly be thrilled by the prospect of soon leaving the driving largely to the vehicle. The designers are already sketching driver’s seats for concept vehicles that swivel to let drivers direct their attention to a tablet computer or the newspaper instead of watching traffic.

Many senior citizens will also put their hope in the next vehicle generation or the one after that because their sensor systems and algorithms can make up for their own declining abilities. This promises to increase the mobility radius for millions of people who previously had been severely limited by old age, illness or disability.

Against this background it is understandable that Google promotes the prototypes of its autonomous vehicles with a video showing a blind man regaining his mobility thought to have been long lost. “For people with disabilities and senior citizens autonomous driving is a question of human dignity”, robotics researcher Whittaker believes. “For that we by no means need vehicles that drive autonomously under all conditions”. He envisions fully automatic people mover systems for public transportation, such as are already in existence at many airports. And some local authorities are considering their use in inner cities.

Autonomous driving also creates new freedoms in a much wider sense. For MIT professor Frazzoli, for instance, it is not about automatically steered vehicles that drive occupants from Point A to Point B, but about the opportunity to reinvent the transportation system and make it more efficient. “Today our cars are only utilised 5 to 10 per cent. The rest of the time they sit around. That is not a sustainable model”, says the scientist working in Singapore. “That’s why I believe that the ‘sharing economy’ and autonomous driving are two sides of the same coin”. ‘Sharing economy’ refers to a culture of sharing services and objects.

Instead of waiting for all-capable fully autonomous vehicles to arrive, says Frazzoli, carsharing services should be outfitted with vehicles that have a limited list of capabilities, such as finding the way to the nearest filling or charging station, picking up a waiting customer at a specific address, or if needed moving to another location. Such cars would solve several problems of autonomous driving at once, the scientist argues: “Since they’re driving without human passengers, they can always take the easiest route, for example, like a municipal commercial vehicle they could initially drive slowly at the edge of the road, and even if their steering and braking manoeuvres were a bit jerky, it wouldn’t bother any occupants. “In this way it is possible to lower the requirements on autonomous vehicles and at the same time expand their fields of application”. With growing experience the autonomous carsharing fleet could increase its effective radius.

There is still the question of how people at the wheel will come to terms with vehicles that act ever more independently. Experts agree that for the foreseeable future there will be mixed operations: some of the vehicles will be steered by people, while others drive partly or highly autonomously. Vehicles will enter and exit parking spaces at the push of a button. Or learn an oft-travelled route to derive independent actions therefrom. The urban infrastructure will increasingly exchange data with the road users. But at the same time there will be older vehicles on the road that have a lot less electronics and intelligence.

To William Whittaker this interaction of man and machine is not a problem. “When we drive on the motorway, we don’t have any direct contact with other drivers even at high speeds. You observe and interpret the behaviour of other road users. This works for all kinds of driving situations without having to draw a distinction between man and machine. Only one thing is for sure: autonomous driving is already a done deal today and will continue to advance steadily”. Via: Daimler