Mercedes To Accept Liability When Autonomous Drive Pilot Is Engaged

"By the end of last year, we were the first [automaker] to get international certification for a Level 3 system. We're aiming to get that for California and Nevada by the end of this year, and we're checking a lot of other states as well," said Mercedes Drive Pilot senior development manager Gregor Kugelmann.

While there are many similar systems on the market by various players, Mercedes seems to trust the technology enough to accept legal likability for it. It has been reported that drivers will also not need to play attention on the road and can even use their mobile phones or watch a movie.

In the US, this could work out for Daimler as there are no federal regulations for autonomous driving systems. The system has designed in such a way that if there is an issue, the system disengages.

“I would expect that, here in the United States, some other states may adopt the rules that will be applied by pioneer states like California and Nevada. And then, they'd have maybe two or three specific rules included in their region. But we will probably have to deal with each individual state because of the way you guys are organized as a country,” said Mercedes' vice president of automated driving George Massing.