Mercedes admits to losing interest in self-driving cars

When Dieter Zetsche was Daimler AG CEO five years ago, the corporation paid great attention to the emerging technologies of autonomous driving. You may still remember the Vision Tokyo and F 015 Luxury in Motion show concepts (watch the video for a reminder). Now, with Ola Källenius at the steer, Mercedes is skeptical about the future of self-driving.

The company has officially dropped from the race for the SAE Level 4 self-drive system, canceling the research project. Not long gone are the times when dedicated areas for self-driving cars cropped up throughout Germany, Daimler cooperated with BMW, and autonomous S-Class sedans coursed the roads in California. Ola Källenius put a lid on all these projects soon after assuming the position at the top of Daimler AG.

The company’s newest development strategy no longer even mentions any kind of autopilot features, instead focusing on electrification and luxury. In its defense, it quotes that many European customers genuinely enjoy driving their cars themselves, unaided by “electronic nannies”. This sounds interesting, because Mercedes-Benz is planning to invest into improving those nannies further. The company is also considering making autonomous models in the future based on third-party self-driving solutions.