Self-driving cars to make local roads safer, but Australians will have to wait for Merc’s latest driver-assist tech

Mercedes-Benz research and development engineers have extended their self-driving vehicle studies to Australia and have plans for testing in New Zealand as well, after initial investigations were carried out solely in Victoria.

Like almost every other car-maker and myriad technology companies including Google, Mercedes is endeavouring to take the market lead on autonomous driving technology – which is forecast to be worth hundreds of billions in a few decades – and the company sees Australia as a vital proving ground for the game-changing technology.

Mercedes-Benz is currently using E-Class vehicles fitted with driver assistance technology from the upgraded S-Class, which has just been launched in Europe and will come Down Under in December, allowing cars to more accurately “see” the world around them.

“We’re now going around Australia with E-Class and we’ll most likely do NZ as well,” confirmed Mercedes-Benz Australia product communications manager, Jerry Stamoulis.

“We’ve been testing an E-Class with S-Class software and we’re measuring data and sending that to Germany and they’re tweaking it and learning from Australian roads.”

The USA has been a hot-bed of autonomous car testing for the past several years, but the reason for testing in such a remote part of the world with a sparse population like Australia is because of our unique road network.

According to the Benz exec, Australia has “very good” roads for a right-hand drive region.

State and federal governments are backing the self-driving car push, said Stamoulis, despite none having specific legislation in place for public use of autonomous vehicles as yet.

He said government regulators and Mercedes-Benz were “on the same page” and stated that no issues were envisaged for the technology in future at either state or federal levels.

“Everyone’s so keen to make the roads safer and get as much technology as we can on Australian roads that our German colleagues have been relieved. They wish every road authority was like Australia.”

Ironically, however, the advanced driver-assist technology that will make its debut on the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class limousine this year is not 100 per cent ready for Australia, because our roads are yet to be mapped accurately enough.

The detailed mapping system being developed by HERE – the company purchased by Daimler, BMW and Audi in 2015 is critical for autonomous vehicles systems like Daimler’s to adjust vehicle speed and trajectory in complex situations such as intersections.

But because Australian mapping is yet to be completed, our facelifted S-Class will not arrive with all of the autonomous technologies available in Europe or the US.

“It won’t be confirmed until the local launch in December. The discussions revolve around HERE maps in Germany. The issue is timing, as to how quickly we can get any issues resolved, versus how quickly we can get them into cars,” Stamoulis clarified.

“It would be nice to have everything [in the new S-Class] but we won’t, that’s the reality.

“Australians love technology and have always loved technology. But this needs to work. We love tech so much that if it doesn’t work properly we’re not interested.”