Autopilot Showdown: Tesla P85D vs Mercedes E63S Wagon

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
Personally I hope I'll be dead before self-driving cars and the eventual Government controlled traffic flow/speed is the norm.

Human driven vehicle will be priced out by insurance companies.

[revelations]

Originally posted by JRSC00LUDE
Personally I hope I'll be dead before self-driving cars and the eventual Government controlled traffic flow/speed is the norm.

There will NEVER be 100% of vehicles being self driven. A town of 1000 people in rural AB will never pay for this infrastructure - nor will all dirt roads be paved.

Manual vehicles will likely still have to broadcast its intentions (speed, heading, braking, etc) to autonomous vehicles however.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[rage2]

We have snow and ice here. It'll be a LONG time before we see driverless cars take over in Canada.

[killramos]

I don't get the insurance argument. It isn't like insurance is even close to punitively expensive, cars are getting safer and more economical all the time. I don't see rates all the sudden skyrocketing and making driving unaffordable.

Sure lower insurance premiums could be a factor in making a vehicle decision but think of it this way;

I know for a fact driving a fiesta would cost drastically less in insurance than my current car. But that doesn't mean I am going to sell my car for one.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak


Just imagine how devastating this will be on the job sectors that involve driving. People who drive cabs, buses, trucks, haulers, etc.... all will be out of a job. I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of people that represents in Canada?

Still though autopilot systems that get paid nothing by the hour, never need to sleep, and make no mistakes. Companies will be lining up to get their hands on it.

The economic impact will be further from that. If uber/car2go with autonomous driving takes off, the need for car ownership will be lowered. Car industry will go on a decline, much like Japanese market.

Originally posted by killramos
I don't get the insurance argument. It isn't like insurance is even close to punitively expensive, cars are getting safer and more economical all the time. I don't see rates all the sudden skyrocketing and making driving unaffordable.

Sure lower insurance premiums could be a factor in making a vehicle decision but think of it this way;

I know for a fact driving a fiesta would cost drastically less in insurance than my current car. But that doesn't mean I am going to sell my car for one.

It won't happen overnight.

Insurance is cheap is because premium payer base is huge and claim rate is low.

Right now, it's just starting. By giving up your driving habbit, you can get a reduction on insurance. That means people who are not giving up their driving data will cover the difference.

Eventually, these will be replaced by autonomous programs which are a) more predictable and b) may be covered by policy taken out by manufacturers.

So the base of driver that insist on driving themselves or can't afford autonomous cars will dwindle, premium revenue lowered and claim rate may increase. Then premium must increase.

Then when people stop having the idea of owning a depreciating asset that stay parked 22hr of the day and switch to uber/car2go, the car industry and car insurance industry will be turned upside down.

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by rage2
We have snow and ice here. It'll be a LONG time before we see driverless cars take over in Canada.

Not according to environmentalists.

[killramos]

Why would claim rates rise of some people started switching to autonomous vehicles? If anything I could make the argument that claims would go down because all the retarded people would get cars that drive themselves and wouldn't cause crashes.

No way they are going to get more than 90% of the population into autonomous cars. Which still leaves millions of manual drivers on the roads. Plenty of critical mass to support an insurrance industry.

And lol at the delusion that everyone is going to take uber and give up their cars.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[The_Rural_Juror]

Philosoraptor wonders if everyone gives up their cars, who will be the uber drivers?

At least bad drivers will be reduced with autonomous cars. Bad drivers I know that I can't take no more. It ain't no lie, I want to see them out that door baby. Bye.

[dingmah]

Model S driving on its own around corners and changing lanes without hands on the steering wheel at all.

https://youtu.be/4CZe5DXeYzw?t=3m4s

[speedog]

A Tesla autopilot video from Calgary...

[revelations]

Really neat stuff.

[Cos]

.

[rage2]

Bump!

Finally had a chance to test "drive" the latest Mercedes self driving system, aka Drive Pilot that's featured in the new E Class and coming to the S and C facelift next year. It came out about 6 months after this article, but didn't really have a chance to try it out till now.

The system is pretty much on par with Tesla Autopilot. No ping pong between lanes, follows cars up front perfectly, and even changes lanes on its own via signaling. Still a little unnerving when cruising at higher speeds towards stopped cars ahead, I can't remember if the Tesla had that problem or not, but it really doesn't see the stopped cars up front till pretty late, so we get some hard braking action.

Need to try the latest Tesla Autopilot software again to see how it's improved since the last test.

[Sky]

^ Is there a difference between Drive Pilot(eg. E Class) and Distronic Plus w/ Steer Assist(eg. GLC)?

I'm hoping to see more E class Drive Pilot capability in other classes.

Do you know what's the maximum speed these systems will allow you to go?

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by revelations


There will NEVER be 100% of vehicles being self driven. A town of 1000 people in rural AB will never pay for this infrastructure - nor will all dirt roads be paved.

Manual vehicles will likely still have to broadcast its intentions (speed, heading, braking, etc) to autonomous vehicles however.

Autonomous vehicles can exceed the capabilities of a human, such as radio frequency communication.

A human needs visual line of sight or at the very least some sort of daylight to see someone elses intent to change lanes, but an autonomous system based on proximity radio frequency can let you know exactly where everyone is, at what speed and direction they are heading without having line of sight. Visual cameras can always be used as an inferior backup, or to compensate for human drivers in the other vehicles.

If you can play catch with automated drones in midair, it already fully exceeds human capability right now.

Computer brains have exceeded the more basic games that the most adept humans in the world decades ago (like chess) what has only been missing are the sensors that are better than human.

I can imagine there will be 100x less collisions when the two technologies are merged. I can also see insurance for human only drivers tripling as soon as there is a critical mass of autonomous vehicles.



And: Yes I know visible light is just a very limited frequency before anyone goes all nerdy science.

[rage2]

Originally posted by Sky
^ Is there a difference between Drive Pilot(eg. E Class) and Distronic Plus w/ Steer Assist(eg. GLC)?

Yes. Distronic Plus w/Steer Assist is what's reviewed in the initial article. I drove the Drive Pilot system last night.

Originally posted by Sky
I'm hoping to see more E class Drive Pilot capability in other classes.

Currently, only the E Sedan, Wagon has it. The Coupe and Convertible will get it once it's out. Next up is the S refresh, after that C refresh. I'm guessing the GLC, GLE and GLS will get it in their refresh years 3-4 years away.

Originally posted by Sky
Do you know what's the maximum speed these systems will allow you to go?

Drive Pilot is a enhanced version of Distronic + Steer Assist, which tracks your "lane" based on lane markings, objects on the road (ie curbs), cars head, and can change lanes automatically. That works up to 130km/h. Under 30km/h (ie rush hour traffic) you don't need to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all while at 30-130km/h you need to have hands on the steering wheels once in a while. Hands off long enough it'll disable itself. From 130km/h to 200km/h it falls back to Distronic + Steer Assist, and just follows the car ahead as well as follow only clear lane markings.

[Sky]

^Awesome, thanks Rage for the detailed explanation. The Drive Pilot system in the E Wagon is very tempting. I'm still comparing between the Audi Q7 and Volvo XC90 but I think the Drive Pilot is superior to those.

[rage2]

Volvo XC90 is only 1st gen, similar to Distronic Plus + Steering Assist. Their full autopilot suite isn't out for a while. Same thing with the Q7. There's a huge gap between these systems and Tesla Autopilot/Mercedes Drive Pilot. The 1st gen systems makes you look like a drunk driver.