It would take a certain amount of assurance and guarantee to trust a machine with a simple task. It would, however, take a lot more serenity for you to trust it with your life. Yet, as a field tester briefly took his hands off the steering wheel clocked at 80 mph on a scenic Austrian freeway, he then instructed the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class to pass a fifth-generation Volkswagen Golf.
Self-driving Cars Becoming Close To Reality
According to Digital Trends, even the most optimistic companies in the automotive industry would admit that mass-produced self-driving cars are at least a few years away from becoming a reality, but as of right now, everyone would surely agree that the so-called "robot cars" are much closer now than they've ever been. The 10th generation of the E-Class is a true testament to the progress made since Mercedes engineers have started developing ways where humans can delegate the task of driving when it becomes tedious, dangerous, or just plain bland.
Mercedes Aims Towards Car Safety
Mercedes has been venturing themselves with self-driving cars for over three decades now. Mercedes have teamed up with European authorities to launch a project named PROMETHEUS on October 1, 1986. The acronym stood for "Program for a European Traffic of Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety."
In simpler terms, Mercedes and its partners wanted to make cars safer, improve the flow of traffic in big urban cities, and to reduce harmful and dangerous emissions. This is also the very same issues that manufacturers are trying to solve today.
Autonomous Driving Is The Future
According to Benz Insider, Mercedes is always stressing that the driver should keep its hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road. As of right now, autonomous technology isn't ready to hit the market just yet, and semi-automated technology also doesn't turn your daily commute into the most ideal and convenient one. However, the company does claim that autonomous driving is in the near future, and it will begin with the introduction of their 2017 Mercedes-Benz.
