(Bloomberg) — Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz won regulatory approval to deploy a hands-free driving system in Germany ahead of Tesla Inc., gaining an edge in the race to offer higher levels of automation to one of the world’s most competitive car markets.
The automaker got the green light to sell its Drive Pilot package for use on stretches of the German Autobahn network at a speed of as fast as 60 kilometers (37 miles) per hour, Mercedes said Thursday
The system was approved as reaching level-three autonomous driving, a notch higher than Tesla’s level-two Autopilot system, and will allow a drivers to take their hands off the wheel in slow-moving traffic.
“Drive Pilot enables the driver to turn away from the traffic and focus on certain secondary activities,” the luxury-car maker said in a statement. “For example, to communicate with colleagues via the in-car office, to write emails, to surf the Internet or to relax and watch a film.”
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Tesla, Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and others have been chasing self-driving technology for years. A fully autonomous vehicle would be highly attractive to premium customers, allowing drivers to work or use entertainment systems while on journeys.
Mercedes received the green light for the system only in Germany, but said it’s aiming for regulatory approval in other jurisdictions as well. Drive Pilot will be an option for the automaker’s S-Class and EQS models from around the middle of next year.
The automaker hasn’t decided how much it will charge for the system, which has approval to be used on 13,191 kilometers of Germany’s highway network.
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