The new Mercedes-AMG S63 E Performance neatly typifies a particular response to a challenge that many luxury performance brands like Mercedes-AMG will need to negotiate over the coming years: how do you carve out a selling point for a driver's car that drives itself?
Albeit only in a few countries where local legislation allows, the S-Class is Mercedes' first car capable of Level Three (so hands-off) self-driving (as it stands, the UK isn't one of them; but that could change sooner than you might think).
An S63 with Level Three capability has a rather ugly lidar sensor on its radiator grille and a couple of special thumb-operated engagement buttons on its steering wheel.
will be able to engage a supervised self-driving mode - although only on particular roads pre-approved by Mercedes and marked in the car's sat-nav system, and only then when the car is in heavy traffic moving at less than 40mph.
But when it's engaged, the driver will be free to read for a few minutes, play games or browse the internet; and they will be prompted when the car needs to hand control back over again.
The S63 isn't quite ready to drive itself at 155mph on the autobahn, then, but you can already see that, one day soon enough, it could be - and probably sooner than the world decides that it's equally ready.
The Mercedes-Benz S-Class now has a model that can drive around totally unaided – as long as you are in one specific car park in Germany. It is an impressive achievement, but how far have we really come since New Scientist proclaimed 15 years ago that a fully driverless car “may not be far off”?
Another major milestone on the road to fully self-driving cars was reached this week with Mercedes-Benz and Bosch being granted regulatory approval for commercial use of a fully automated valet in a public parking lot.
The approval came from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority and at present only applies for the P6 parking garage run by airport parking management company Apcoa at Stuttgart Airport, the main airport in Mercedes' hometown of Stuttgart.
demonstrated the automated valet in 2017 at the parking garage of Mercedes' museum in Stuttgart, and the two have been testing the system at Stuttgart Airport since 2020.
You simply drive to a designated drop-off point at the entrance of the car park or parking area, hop out, and then use the Mercedes Me app to send the car to a pre-booked parking space. The system relies on Bosch-developed sensors located around the car park, which communicate with the self-driving system fitted in Mercedes' cars. Later, the car returns to the drop-off point in exactly the same way.
The sensors can be retrofitted to existing car parks, including multi-story car parks like the one at the Stuttgart Airport. Cars can be parked much closer to each other since no doors need to be opened during operation. This, according to Mercedes and Bosch, can make car parks 20% more space efficient.
The system is rated at Level 4 on the SAE scale for self-driving capability, as a human isn't required but the movement is restricted within a geofenced zone. Currently, it is only available with Mercedes' S-Class and EQS models built since July 2022, and with an activated Intelligent Park Pilot feature available via Mercedes Me Connect.
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