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Mercedes-Benz S-Class Intelligent Drive Autonomous Car Demonstrated
We would not be wrong in assuming that autonomous driving technology is one field of development that many automakers are currently working on even though they might not have publicly revealed it.
A few companies that we do know who are actively working on autonomous cars include Volvo, Nissan and now Mercedes Benz. At the Frankfurt Auto Show, Merc presented the S500 Intelligent Drive, what could be termed as the world's first fully functional self driving car concept to debut in a major international auto show. It turns out Mercedes has been working on self driving cars for as long as 20 years.
Recently, Mercedes successfully demonstrated its latest S-Class equipped with Intelligent Drive autonomous driving technology by travelling between Mannheim and Pforzheim in Germany. The car drove without human aid for most part of the 96 km long journey.
Mercedes choose this particular route because it was the same one in the world's first long distance travel was made by Bertha Benz, wife and business partner of Carl Benz. That historic travel was made exactly 125 years ago.
During the demonstration run the intelligent system had to navigate through traffic lights, avoid pedestrians, make turns and more. The system managed this by reading traffic signals and road markings using a large set of complex sensors.
The system also took inputs from GPS. But it still would have been possible if not for custom developed road maps, including 3D ones, developed by their partner Nokia.
The latest S-Class saloon already features the Intelligent Drive system, but its features are most restricted to driver aids such as advanced cruise control and lane detection system. Fully autonomous cars are still some years away.
Reports suggest that we'll start seeing such cars enter mainstream by the year 2020. The S-Class will definitely be one of the first cars to come with autonomous driving. This is also the year when Nissan has promised to debut its first production self driving car.
Mercedes-Benz S-Class with Intelligent Drive technology being demonstrated in a 90km autonomous drive.
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