The days until we see a lot of self-driving cars on the roads are not far. Mercedes has started testing out their Intelligent Drive technology on S-500 model cars. In a press conference at the Frankfurt Auto Show recently, the company showed off its fully-automated S-500 to the audience, and is expected to start selling self-driving cars to the masses as early as 2020.
The video below describes the company’s Intelligent Drive technology. The engineers were able to travel in the autonomous car for continuous 60 miles, without any intervention. The car was able to drive by itself in gridlock, which can also steer itself to stay in the lane.
The company also says that some technologies which are being used in the Intelligent Drive are already available in their existing cars. And I agree with it. I was able to clearly see where the company was going with the improvements in their cruise control systems in S-Class cars. Stop and Go is yet another technology which is available in some countries right now as an add-on to the Mercedes vehicles. The package comes with cameras, radar and ultrasound sensors to get data from its surrounding environment.
Mercedes has improved their Stop and Go technology with Intelligent Drive. The company has now built sensors that can work even at high-speeds without any manual interruption. Mercedes also revealed that they’ve used their existing technologies and cameras that are available in production on Intelligent Drive, making it even more affordable and also to prove a point that the mass-production is not going to take long from now.
Here’s a demo video of the Mercedes Benz Intelligent Drive on S-500: