To show just how close autonomous-driving cars are to being a reality, Mercedes turned its new S-Class loose on a historic drive route in Europe. And they really turned it loose–the S-Class in question did all the driving by itself.
The car followed the 100-kilometer route from Mannheim to Pforzheim taken by Bertha Benz 125 years ago, when she made the long-distance drive to prove for her husband Karl Benz that the automobile was indeed the future of transportation. That car’s self-driving descendant had to deal with a much-changed world of course, contending with heavy urban traffic, roundabouts, trams, pedestrians and traffic lights.
For this trip, the S-Class received some equipment in addition to the standard complement of driver’s aids. Mercedes increased the width between the lenses of the stereo camera to improve distance “vision,” added more long- and short-range radar units to improve detection of local obstacles. A color camera was added to the S-Class could distinguish traffic lights, and a rear-facing camera improved the car’s ability to locate itself on a map. A 3D digital map of the route was generated to help the car navigate as well.
The experiment was a success, and Mercedes posted video of the event. This is the wave of the future, and it may arrive sooner than anyone expected.
