Mercedes-Benz S-Klasse INTELLIGENT DRIVE fährt autonom auf ...

and Pforzheim. Yet, unlike Bertha Benz all those years ago, it did not have the
road "all to itself", but had to negotiate dense traffic and complex traffic
situations.
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"This S-Class spells out where we're headed with "Intelligent Drive" and what
tremendous potential there is in currently available technology," says Dr. Dieter
Zetsche, Chief Executive Officer of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
"Of course, it would have been a lot easier to take the autobahn for the
autonomous drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim. But there was a special
motivation for us to carry out this autonomous drive along this very route 125
years after Bertha Benz. After all, we wouldn't be Mercedes-Benz unless we set
ourselves challenging goals and then went on to achieve them."
Autonomous driving with production-based sensors
The Mercedes-Benz S 500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE research vehicle was equipped
with production-based sensors for the project. Based on a further development of
the sensor technologies already in use in the new S-Class, the developers taught
the technology platform to know where it is, what it sees and how to react
autonomously. With the aid of its highly automated "Route Pilot", the vehicle is
able to negotiate its own way through dense urban and rural traffic.
"For us, autonomous vehicles are an important step on the way to accident-free
driving," says Zetsche. "They will bring greater comfort and safety for all road
users. That's because autonomous vehicles also react when the driver is
inattentive or fails to spot something. On top of that, they relieve the driver of
tedious or difficult tasks while at the wheel."
"With our successful test drives following in the tracks of Bertha Benz, we have
demonstrated that highly automated driving is possible without the luxury of
specially closed-off sections of road and relatively straightforward traffic
situations," says Professor Thomas Weber, member of the Board of Management
of Daimler AG with responsibility for Group Research and Head of Mercedes-
Benz Cars Development. "In line with the goal of the project, we have gained
important insights into the direction in which we need to further develop our
current systems in order to enable autonomous driving not just on motorways,
Daimler Communications, 70546 Stuttgart/Germany
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