Autonomy timeline decades away
Mercedes-Benz experts say full autonomous driving is still decades away for privately owned vehiclesDon't expect your future privately-owned passenger car to deliver full autonomy anytime soon. That's the news from Mercedes-Benz’s own experts on the subject.
Manager for autonomous systems on the new Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 electric SUV, Jochen Haab, told carsales.com.au that development of self-driving cars was heading in two separate directions, with full autonomy for privately owned vehicles likely to be some time away.
In contrast, fully autonomous self-driving taxis and the like could be operating in low-speed geo-fenced areas within a decade, he said.
“We will see vehicles with high levels of autonomy in the next decade,” Haab told carsales.
“But this will be in specific restricted access areas, perhaps geo-fenced.”
Haab said low-speed urban areas and even motorways were relatively easy for existing systems to cope with, however, he believes that additional sensor systems and "as much information as reasonable" needed to be input and processed by vehicles for the systems to work reliably.
“For full autonomy, two sensor systems [cameras and radar] are not enough,” he stated.
Haab also stated high-definition maps will be important for the next step in Mercedes-Benz’s own autonomous driving plans.
“Things like [self] parking will take big steps,” Haab explained.
“But country roads are still the most difficult. This is due to a combination of higher speeds and many more scenarios.”
Haab stated that an autonomous car that could cope with “everything, anywhere” was “well beyond the next decade”.
Mercedes-Benz’s research and development for autonomy is taking in use cases from right across the globe.
“We are looking at Australian conditions,” Haab explained.
“Melbourne’s hook turns are very complicated but they can be programmed. Pretty soon an autonomous car can do this better than most drivers,” he joked.
Haab explained that Mercedes-Benz would add audio inputs to its autonomous car dataset.
“Audio can help with ambulances etcetera -- you will see this quite soon,” he said.
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