Tesla gets a lot of flak for advertising Autopilot in a misleading way. Advertising with functionality and liability that could exist at some point but simply doesn’t.
What Mercedes does here is not just empty advertising, it’s offering actual lvl 3 autonomous driving complete with the car being liable in those situations.
Which in practice means Mercedes can actually deliver what Tesla so far has only been advertising with; Taking your attention actually away from the street to watch a movie or check your emails.
This is not a “problem”, it’s the literal definition of lvl 3 autonomous driving; Car takes liability in certain situations to such a degree that the driver is legally pretty much just a passenger.
> Taking your attention actually away from the street to watch a movie or check your emails.
If I were the kind of person that can afford and buy an EQS[1] I would rather hire a driver so I can do it all the time, not just at 40km/h in a slow moving highway jam.
> Which in practice means Mercedes can actually deliver what Tesla so far has only been advertising with
Do you have experience with this tech or are you taking the word of an marketing campaign? Taking "liability" doesn't mean much if you get in a serious accident and have medical issues for the rest of your life. If you get in an unsafe cab does it give you a lot of assurance that technically the driver is responsible?
How does one differentiate an unsafe cab from a safe cab?
For a more apples to apples comparison: Tesla vs Mercedes. Tesla broadcasts L5 confidence in a poorly implemented L2 system, and accepts zero liability for its faults. Mercedes broadcasts L3 confidence in their system (which I'm not familiar enough to actually characterize), and accepts full liability for its faults. I'd prefer to share the road with a self-driving Mercedes than a Tesla, because mistakes are inevitable and insurance payouts are not. If I'm disabled for life, I'd rather get paid for damages than not.
It means that failing to prevent an accident will cost MB significantly more than they can possibly make with a single car. So they need to have run the numbers to be confident that this will not bankrupt them. This is _far_ more than Tesla ever did.
Tesla, until maybe this year, was never cashflow positive and the remaining lifetime of the company was always a significant risk. MB is an institution here in Germany. For many many reasons they will be one of the car manufactures that will disappear last. This is a company that cannot do such a risk without massive personal retribution risk to the executives, especially not after the Diesel scandal.
Of course that doesn't remove the "but I'm in the hospital/disabled/..." part of being personally in an accident. But that can happen _anyways_, irrespective of you being responsible even if you drive yourself. Compared to any other offering, this is a significant change of the rules of the game.
Getting in a cab where the driver accepts liability (and has insurance) seems much safer than getting in a cab where the driver passes liability to you and your insurance. Neither is intended to be the only way you asses safety, but the former is much better signal than the latter.
What Mercedes does here is not just empty advertising, it’s offering actual lvl 3 autonomous driving complete with the car being liable in those situations.
Which in practice means Mercedes can actually deliver what Tesla so far has only been advertising with; Taking your attention actually away from the street to watch a movie or check your emails.
This is not a “problem”, it’s the literal definition of lvl 3 autonomous driving; Car takes liability in certain situations to such a degree that the driver is legally pretty much just a passenger.