Automakers are like politicians. They just can’t resist an opportunity to remind the world how much better they are than their rivals. Take BMW and Mercedes. On Friday of last week BMW announced that it could finally offer Level 3 autonomous driving tech on its 7-Series limo, and while, sure, it was much later to the Level 3 party than Mercedes, BMW’s system can also work in the dark, arguably making the Seven the most advanced self-driving car currently on sale.
A weekend later, just a couple of days after BMW made its Level 3 announcement, we’ve got Mercedes essentially telling us Level 3 is old hat, because it has no less than seven cars on sale that are available with Level 4 autonomous tech. Now, it could be a coincidence, and maybe Mercedes had been planning today’s news release for ages, but I don’t think so.
While Level 3 autonomy, like BMW’s Personal Pilot L3 and Mercedes’ own Drive Pilot, allows drivers to delegate driving duties to the car at low speeds on select motorways, Level 4 is proper self-driving. This is where cars can handle most traffic situations on most roads themselves. Robotaxis like Cruise’s Chevy Bolts are Level 4, and Mercedes wants us to know that the E-Class sedan and wagon, the EQE SUV, EQS SUV, EQE sedan, EQS sedan and S-Class sedan are all available with Level 4 tech. Eat that, BMW!
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But wait. The Unimog-sized asterisk accompanying the Level 4 claim is down to the fact that the cars can only show off their Level 4 tricks within a single parking structure, garage P6, at Stuttgart Airport. Customers drive into the car park, exit the vehicle and send it to a pre-booked space via a smartphone app that activates the car’s Intelligent Park Pilot system.
Mercedes and Bosch received approval for the system in November of last year but I actually saw it in operation first-hand back in 2020 when I attended the launch of the current Mercedes S-Class. This was before Cruise has even begun testing in San Francisco so watching a car drive off by itself and then park with no one at the wheel was surreal.
The plan was for other parking garages around the world to offer the same functionality around the world when legislation allowed. That doesn’t seem to have happened yet, which certainly limits Benz’s bragging rights. But having L4 at all still puts Mercedes ahead of BMW, and in the battle of the brands, any edge is worth shouting about.
