Mercedes Follows In The Footsteps Of Tesla, Will Make Vehicles Upgradable With Autonomous Driving Tech

Break ups are hard, but Mercedes isn’t wasting any time as they’ve teamed with NVIDIA less than a week after halting an autonomous driving partnership with BMW.

Under the new partnership, Mercedes and NVIDIA will create a “revolutionary in-vehicle computing system and AI computing infrastructure” which will be rolled out across the automaker’s lineup starting in 2024.

While that doesn’t sound too exciting, the new system will enable future models to be upgradable in terms of automated driving technology. This mirrors Tesla’s approach as the automaker regularly adds new autonomous driving features to existing vehicles. In particular, Tesla launched its Smart Summon feature last year with mixed results.

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We’ll likely more more in the coming months, but the two companies described it as “new software-defined architecture” built on NVIDIA’s DRIVE platform. They went on to say it will enable them to deliver “state-of-the-art automated driving functionalities” including the automation of “regular routes from address to address.”

There will also be “numerous future safety and convenience applications,” and customers will be able to purchase and add new capabilities over time thanks to over-the-air software updates. Mercedes also mentioned subscription services, so it sounds like some autonomous driving features might require an annual fee.

The companies will jointly develop AI and automated vehicle applications that fall into the Level 2 and Level 3 categories defined by SAE International. They’ll also work together on autonomous parking systems that reach up to Level 4.

According to Daimler Chairman Ola Källenius, “This new platform will become an efficient, centralized and software-defined system in our future Mercedes-Benz vehicles.” He added, “NVIDIA’s AI computing architecture will help us streamline our journey towards autonomous driving. These new capabilities and upgrades will be downloaded from the cloud, improving safety, increasing value and extending the joy of ownership for all Mercedes-Benz customers.”