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Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

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Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#221

Post by smabie »

ricardobayes wrote: post #140
ahartmetz wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of like it, it's moving away from the overly aggressive looking style of most modern cars. Maybe we can have cars for adults again instead of these Transformers-style designs. A shape that is fit for purpose (aerodynamic) is part of that. BMW and Mercedes switch places periodically in technical and design leadership, and I think it's Mercedes's time. BMW has been going off the rails recently...

As a kid I remember standing in ave when a new car came out, very few cars have that effect anymore (on me). New car design generally is pretty meh nowadays. Seems mid-2000s leading up to 2014-15 was peak.

Or maybe what changed was that you are no longer a kid

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#222

Post by npteljes »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #203

I drive a lot and I don't know if I'm crazy or not but instead of a car which can "mostly self drive but which I must watch at all times for something could wrong", I want instead a car that watches me while I drive and which prevents me from making most dangerous things. Rephrasing it: I don't want to be the one preventing the car from doing stupid things. I want the car to be preventing me from doing stupid things.…

I feel similarly about these technologies. If I wanted to nanny another driver, I'd work as a driving instructor. Tech that assists driving I think I'd appreciate more, like the ABS brakes.

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#223

Post by kreetx »

ricardobayes wrote: post #140
ahartmetz wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of like it, it's moving away from the overly aggressive looking style of most modern cars. Maybe we can have cars for adults again instead of these Transformers-style designs. A shape that is fit for purpose (aerodynamic) is part of that. BMW and Mercedes switch places periodically in technical and design leadership, and I think it's Mercedes's time. BMW has been going off the rails recently...

As a kid I remember standing in ave when a new car came out, very few cars have that effect anymore (on me). New car design generally is pretty meh nowadays. Seems mid-2000s leading up to 2014-15 was peak.

Off-topic but I had the same thing with sneakers. There seemed to be all kinds of interesting experiments up until mid-2000s, but there is pretty much nothing to look at in today's stores.

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#224

Post by bookofjoe »

dotancohen wrote: post #67
TekMol wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason, a large part of HN users seem to hate every fundamentally new technology. It seems the majority here thinks the next 20 years will be like the last 20 years, with only minor, gradial improvements. And every idea of a bigger shift is a scam. I have yet to see a good explanation of this. Maybe this is the case on every forum, simply because that is the prevailing attitude among people in general? Durin…

It seems to me that a large part of HN users are over forty. I'm over forty. When I was twenty, every new technology that promised the world was to be believed. Now that I'm over forty, the bar for believing in a new hype is very very high. This may be more a result of news outlets exaggerating claims, than of actual creative entities themselves overpromising.

THIS is the most interesting comment on HN so far this year. I would LOVE to see a bar graph of HN user age distribution. Full disclosure: I'm 74.

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#225

Post by bookofjoe »

oblio wrote: post #101
jmole wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying a major car company is buying a whole heap of liabilities and depreciating assets. The major value drivers (contributors to market cap) are brand, patent portfolio, and future revenues from existing capex. Tesla doesn't want to support the supply chain of new and used parts for a legacy car company, they can barely keep up with their own (and they only make 4 models!).

> legacy car company Let's drop the BS, please. Mercedes is a car company. They are not legacy anything. They're the inventor of the car and a myriad other innovations. They're making a ton of EVs and will sell a ton more next year and the year after that. They have AR navigation and now are close to L3 self driving.

Also, unlike the well-publicized issues re: Tesla repair difficulties, you can take a Mercedes in anywhere and get it fixed by authorized mechanics.

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#226

Post by _nalply »

piaste wrote: post #208
akira2501 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have trains you can just drive your car into. It's quite popular in Europe.

They are absolutely not popular. I've never heard of them, despite having both family and friends who went on yearly car trips across (one or more of) Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Denmark. Looking into it, it seems they were popular decades ago, but they've been all but shut down by the 2010s due to unprofitability, and only a handful of seasonal routes remain now. Though who knows, if gas prices keep…

Huh? They are popular here.

There's a high mountain pass with a glacier being in the way, the Lötschenpass. There's only a hiking path over it. A few kilometers to the west, there's another high mountain pass, the Gemmipass that has an extremely steep drop to the south such that in medieval times not even a mule track was possible. People avoided the rockfaces by going over an even higher saddle to which they got on by a steep grassy ridge. Today there's a cable car and hiking path blasted into the rocks, somewhat like the path to Angel's Landing in Zion National Park.

Up to today there are no roads over that mountain range between the Cantons of Bern and Valais for about 100 km. Only the Lötschberg railroad tunnel. People from the eastern part of Valais "have trains you can just drive your car into".

I myself have a customer card of the railroad operator because it's the most direct way to the south, and we go about once a month. They also offer transportation through a second mountain pass to Italy. After 35 minutes of driving and after one hour of relaxing we enjoy Italy's dolce vita.

There are other railroad operators taking cars. I know one in the Canton of Grisons, and between France and England there's another one.

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#227

Post by Karellen »

sangnoir wrote: post #161
Karellen wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was Tesla ever a software company?

When Tesla's sky-high P/E was predicated on software supremacy. I was informed self-driving robotaxis would be a multi-billion dollar industry that Tesla and Uber would dominate, destroying legacy automakers in the process. This was back when Uber had a self-driving program, it's been downhill since. TO answer your question more concretely: I'd say since 8-10 years ago.

I mean, maybe?

But, like, that's after they were making EVs. The roadster was announced in 2006, and started production in 2008 - 15 years ago.

They went from making EVs, which are cars with some software inherently in them, to making different cars with even more software in them. They're a car company first, who have been increasing the amount of software they've written to put in their cars.

The comment I was replying to was suggesting they were a software company first, which then pivoted to making cars. Which is... just... what?!?

Yes, you technically answered my question, so thanks for taking the time and making the effort and whatever, but just not in a way that is actually helpful in the context that I asked it.

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#228

Post by foepys »

dx034 wrote: post #178
micwag wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't find anything, but I imagine it's similar to normal car insurance. In Germany most insurances are capped at 100m (legal minimum is 7.7m). Most expensive accident in history was 32m.

It's important to note that healthcare is much cheaper in Germany than in the US. In addition to that, compensation for injuries also tends to be much lower. That massively affects the costs of accidents.

In Germany if you are liable for an accident the health insurance of the affected people will bill you for all incurring costs. At market rate, not at "health insurance discount" rate. I wouldn't bet that the cost in that case is lower than in the US.

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#229

Post by jupp0r »

INTPenis wrote: post #155
jupp0r wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the definition of level 3 that you don't have to do this? Is your point that the claim of level 3 readiness is false or that all autonomous driving is somehow inferior to non autonomous driving?

If you work with technology, you don't trust technology. Like IBM said back in the 70s; A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision. Well you're letting it make decisions for you in a 2 ton murder weapon.

I trust technology at this point much more than the average driver (in normal conditions)

Re: Mercedes is the first automaker to offer Level 3 self-driving in the US

#230

Post by nunez »

This is a gimmick. Mercedes is claiming liability for the car because the feature only works in extremely limited set of circumstances (traffic jam, cruising at less than 39 mi/hr).

Tesla's Autopilot has long been able to do this in this domain, and it does it well; they just don't claim liability yet because $reasons (I'm sure they're gearing up for it with Tesla Insurance).

As we see in the announcement, Drive Pilot doesn't even perform automated lane changes yet, which even Ford's BlueCruise system can do.

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