US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday said human drivers must pay attention at all times after videos emerged of people wearing what appeared to be Apple’s recently released Vision Pro headset while driving Teslas.
Buttigieg responded on Twitter/X to a video that had more than 24m views of a Tesla driver who appeared to be gesturing with his hands to manipulate a virtual reality field.
Despite their names, Tesla’s assisted driving features – Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving – do not mean the vehicles are fully autonomous, Buttigieg said Monday on social media.
“Reminder – ALL advanced driver assistance systems available today require the human driver to be in control and fully engaged in the driving task at all times,” Buttigieg said.
This is not entirely true anymore. If you’re in a 2024 Mercedes EQS Sedan driving in Nevada (Edit: or California) at less than 40 mph, you are allowed to take your hands off the wheel and your eyes off the road.
Lol that’s oddly specific.
Test road?
No, Mercedes is the first one to market with a level 3 (fully self driving) system, which is available with their top of the line sedan.
They applied for certification and got it from the state of Nevada. (Edit: And California)
The system itself is limited to 40mph.
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Full autonomy would include all roads and speed limits.
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https://www.synopsys.com/automotive/autonomous-driving-levels.html
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Christ alive, your own definition contradicts you. Above a certain speed, it can’t control itself. Not independent. Needs a human to drive it. Ergo, not fully autonomous even by your own definition.
Let’s leave the systems definitions to the actual engineers, thanks.
I suggest you go educate yourself about the levels of vehicle autonomy before you erroneously label systems you don’t understand.
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If I recall correctly the big difference being that Mercedes is the first manufacturer to take legal liability for an accident while their software is driving (under the specific circumstances), which is pretty big IMO.
Normal roads, just only in traffic jams.
Same in parts of Germany.
It’s actually more specific than that. It also only works if there’s a car directly in front of you.
Wow, is Mercedes advertising that at all?
Engadget tried it in LA in September ‘23. (Piped)
Interestingly, still can’t use your phone due to CA law - but can watch videos, browse the web, as long as you stay <=40 MPH (65 km/h).
And it’s Mercedes’ fault if it crashes!
Same for the Waymo cars. You can actually sit in the back seat and let it take you to your destination.