I hope it doesn't engage at night, as we don't have turquoise LEDs so the blue ones will ruin night vision.
you don't have night vision with headlights and full beams on... they look just like daytime running lights, not terribly bright.
Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
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Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#12Is this purely for marketing reasons? Why would any driver need to know someone else is using auto-pilot?
It would certainly change the dynamic of the "chicken" game at 4 way stop sign intersections. I remember previously reading that Tesla tried to add the "roll forward slowly to assert your turn" function but was snubbed by NHTSA. Now one could know they can just cut off the Mercedes and it will stop?
Hypothetically, yes. But Mercedes’ tech only works on certain roads, which may not have stop lights or stop signs.
Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#13Surprised to learn it's not tesla or comma with the first level 3 driving system approved for sale in the US. Would never have guessed Mercedes would beat them to it.
Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#14Surprised to learn it's not tesla or comma with the first level 3 driving system approved for sale in the US. Would never have guessed Mercedes would beat them to it.
Given Tesla's haphazard approach, even if they had a level 3 driving system available, they probably would just launch it without any approval.
Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#15Blue lights are banned on cars in lots of places (so that you don't look like a cop car). I'm assuming SAE has thought of this already? It doesn't look too similar to the bright blue lights on cop cars, but still.
Quite a lot of headlights already have a blue tint to them and I don't think there's really any confusion regarding those. The fact that the lights don't flash are already quite different to emergency lights.
Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#16An autonomous driving system is either good enough to drive on our roads without supervision — or it's not. If it is good enough, it shouldn't matter whether others know if the driver isn't human. Any unsupervised driving system is likely to be around two orders of magnitude safer than a human driver.[0] So effectively they're special lights to tell others that a car is extremely safe.
This will backfire horribly. While there is some residual benefit to law enforcement, these lights will signal to human drivers and pedestrians that this vehicle can be bullied with impunity, and with no risk of angry retaliation. Human drivers will cut in front of them mercilessly. Pedestrians will step onto the road in front of them. Maybe not in classy affluent suburbs, but definitely in rough neighborhoods.
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[0] I think it's obvious that anything less than two orders of magnitude (100X safer) is socially unsustainable. Think about it. 40 thousand people die on roads in the USA each year. Replace all drivers with an AI that's "only" 100X safer and we'll initially marvel at the 39k lives saved every year. But that will quickly be forgotten. What's left is the brutal carnage of 400 people mercilessly killed by robot cars annually...
Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#17Surprised to learn it's not tesla or comma with the first level 3 driving system approved for sale in the US. Would never have guessed Mercedes would beat them to it.
Slow and steady won this race.
Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#18Surprised to learn it's not tesla or comma with the first level 3 driving system approved for sale in the US. Would never have guessed Mercedes would beat them to it.
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Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#19I think this idea makes some sense, in a mixed-traffic world where some vehicles are autonomous and others are not, some indication that a vehicle is driving autonomously is useful information to everyone around them. Additional situational information, provided it is not overly intrusive or overwhelming is generally beneficial. As for the colour, clearly Mercedes requested Turquoise for brand reasons. I wonder if th…
> some indication that a vehicle is driving autonomously is useful information to everyone around them
I'm genuinely curious - what are you thinking when you say this?
I don't know what I'd do with that information. It shouldn't make me drive differently - e.g. not be aggressive to see if I can invoke reaction(s) in the autonomous system, and I should already be driving w/ due care.
Re: Mercedes gets approval for turquoise automated driving lights
#20An autonomous driving system is either good enough to drive on our roads without supervision — or it's not. If it is good enough, it shouldn't matter whether others know if the driver isn't human. Any unsupervised driving system is likely to be around two orders of magnitude safer than a human driver.[0] So effectively they're special lights to tell others that a car is extremely safe. This will backfire horribly. Wh…
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