I’m sitting in the passenger seat of a special Mercedes Benz S-Class on a blindingly bright California spring day, casually watching an autonomous delivery robot roll through a crosswalk on its way to deliver someone’s takeout meal in Santa Monica. The test driver next to me chuckles as we’re about to merge onto the highway for a demonstration of Mercedes’ Drive Pilot system, a conditional Level 3 automated driving system that consumers may be able to order by the end of this year.
Mercedes is aiming to be the first automaker to bring legal Level 3 automated driving off the test track t …
