Mercedes Can Now Test Self-Driving Cars On Stuttgart’s Public Roads
The city of Stuttgart in Germany — the city’s government bureau of transportation, that is — has just given authorization to Mercedes-Benz to begin testing its self-driving vehicle technology on public roads there.
The exact purpose of the testing authorization is to allow Mercedes-Benz to get real-world experience with its new autonomous test vehicle fleet, which is based on the company’s V-Class.
The self-driving tech includes the company’s newest generation of sensors and the DAVOS (Daimler Autonomous Vehicle Operating System) system.
Green Car Congress provides more:
“New on board are — besides LiDAR sensors — deep learning technologies as well as GPUs. The testing of the fully automated driving will be monitored by 2 specially trained drivers in the car for safety reasons.
“In 2011, Mercedes-Benz obtained approval for the testing of autonomous vehicles on German roads and thus successfully completed the Bertha Benz trip in August 2013. Mercedes-Benz has developed DAVOS for autonomous vehicles based on these experiences, which have been accumulated at the time, as well as numerous further trials worldwide.”
To be expected, if the company is going to achieve its goals and timelines as far as self-driving vehicles goes, then testing will need to continue expanding rapidly over the coming years.
Even if the company’s plans are more or less achieved, though, it seems unlikely that the firm won’t be beaten to market by some of its competitors. That’s assuming similar levels of quality — it may be the case, though, that multiple firms are all advertising fully autonomous capability in under a decade’s time, but with substantial variations in quality.
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