I'm not positive on this but I believe Tesla either uses technology or licenses patents directly from Mercedes-Benz regarding their whole "self-driving" and "autopilot" marketing here.
Case in point: my current car does a variety of self-driving tasks such as:
- Autonomous braking
- Active lane keeping assist to steer you in the lane if the radar and cameras detect you are swerving
- PRE-SAFE collision prevention plus that will autonomously brake if it detects an imminent impact
- Pedestrian awareness system that will autonomously brake if it detects a pedestrian is entering the range of the long, medium and short range radar
- Distronic Plus that will accelerate and brake according to both the vehicle in front and behind you from 0 mph up to 100mph
- Attention assist that employs various sensor to detect drowsiness and alert the driver audibly and via haptic feedback if it's time to take a break.
- Active blind spot assist that will audibly, visually and via haptic feedback alert the driver that a car has entered your hotspot and prevent you from entering that particular lane
So while the Tesla camp is and should be excited about "self-driving" enhancements, Mercedes-Benz has been doing this for well over 2 years now with some of the technology above even becoming standard features on non-high end Mercedes vehicles such as the S-Class with the appropriate packages.
I don't really see much but hype with respect to Tesla's announcement.
Good link here: http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/benz/safety
Case in point: my current car does a variety of self-driving tasks such as:
- Autonomous braking
- Active lane keeping assist to steer you in the lane if the radar and cameras detect you are swerving
- PRE-SAFE collision prevention plus that will autonomously brake if it detects an imminent impact
- Pedestrian awareness system that will autonomously brake if it detects a pedestrian is entering the range of the long, medium and short range radar
- Distronic Plus that will accelerate and brake according to both the vehicle in front and behind you from 0 mph up to 100mph
- Attention assist that employs various sensor to detect drowsiness and alert the driver audibly and via haptic feedback if it's time to take a break.
- Active blind spot assist that will audibly, visually and via haptic feedback alert the driver that a car has entered your hotspot and prevent you from entering that particular lane
So while the Tesla camp is and should be excited about "self-driving" enhancements, Mercedes-Benz has been doing this for well over 2 years now with some of the technology above even becoming standard features on non-high end Mercedes vehicles such as the S-Class with the appropriate packages.
I don't really see much but hype with respect to Tesla's announcement.
Good link here: http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/benz/safety