Autonomous Driving Level 2++: Like a Ghost Hand through Beijing

It seems to be harder than climbing Mount Everest – without an oxygen mask, backpack, and hiking boots. Autonomous driving, at the end of the past decade on everyone's lips, has stalled. Not much has happened for the customer since then. There are now driving assistance systems in some models, but you still have to keep your eyes mostly on the road and your hands on the steering wheel. This leaves no real time for relaxation behind the wheel, checking messages, or even enjoying a Hollywood movie on the go. While most driver assistance systems focus on support on country roads and especially highways, Mercedes plans to expand its portfolio in a different direction at the beginning of 2025.

Next steps in China and the USA

In China and the USA, a city assistant is being tested with great urgency, which can greatly support the driver in the turbulent city traffic of Beijing or Los Angeles. The potential of the so-called Level 2++ system is certainly impressive, as a first test on the streets of Beijing shows.

The functionality of the so-called Level-2++ system is easy to explain, as the driver doesn’t have to do much more than with a normal navigation system. Select the destination, start driving, and once you’ve merged from the parking lot into the street, press the control module on the steering wheel. This time it is still a test vehicle in the form of a current Mercedes S-Class, but the system is likely to be introduced with the new electronics platform that the Swabians are bringing to market with the new electric model of the Mercedes CLA at the beginning of 2025. So, having turned onto a three-lane road in the south of the Chinese metropolis Beijing, that’s it for the pilot. The dark S-Class, indistinguishable from a production model from the outside, starts driving without the driver having to do anything. After just under a kilometer, the first traffic light appears and the sedan brakes safely – again without driver intervention. The light turns green after a few seconds and it continues, but the Chery mini-truck in front is crawling along at 30 km/h. The prototype overtakes, having automatically signaled, and then merges back in behind the white loading master of Chinese design because it later turns right, as shown on the navigation screen.

"We don’t need an HD navigation map for this," explains Mercedes Chief Software Officer Magnus Östberg, sitting behind the largely idle driver in the backseat, adding:

"It’s all controlled by the ten cameras and sensors all around."

The driver occasionally touches the steering wheel to confirm that he is responsible, but the steering in Beijing traffic at this midday on Wednesday remains with the vehicle itself even after ten minutes of city driving. Above the navigation screen of the S-Class, a smaller screen from the test workshop shows schematically processes, lanes, traffic lights, and directions. "We'll soon be turning at an unsecured intersection," Östberg almost seems excited about the upcoming left turn. Unsecured means there is no special left-turn traffic light, and the S-Class positions itself on the somewhat confusing left-turn lane and waits until the oncoming traffic stops.

The systems have recently improved dramatically

Starting, turning, merging – it all works smoothly. Östberg is as satisfied as the development engineer in the driver’s seat. Starting, braking, inching forward in city traffic – all works quite well in the prototype, even if a trained driver might sometimes achieve it a bit more comfortably. "We’re not at the fine-tuning stage yet," emphasizes the tech-enthusiastic Swede, "the system must first run safely and it is harder than ever here in the Chinese inner cities. But we are very satisfied with the current progress."