Mercedes-Benz to Introduce Autobahn Pilot Assistant in Two Years

We are not talking about new model launches, although there were plenty of those as well in 2013, but futuristic technologies that no other carmaker has at the moment.

The biggest news came in the form of the semi-autonomous driver assistance systems that can now be found in both the S-Class W222 and the E-Class W212 facelift family.

While in essence the radar and camera-based systems could very well render the driver as expendable, as exampled in the production-based S 500 Intelligent Drive, fear of legislation in certain countries has made Mercedes-Benz a bit cautious in rolling out the technology in all its passenger vehicles, but that will soon change.

So far only in prototype form, the Stuttgart engineers are now working on a system nicknamed “Autobahn Pilot”, which is in essence a high-way autopilot, a technology which will arrive in showrooms in about two years time.

Using the same radar sensors and twin-camera system that can “see” in 3D from the new S-Class W222 and E-Class W212 facelift, the Autobahn Pilot can not only keep the car in its highway lane without driver input – braking or accelerating as necessary to keep the car from crashing into nearby traffic – but it can also pass other vehicles without the need for the driver to use the steering wheel.

Although we are mildly intrigued by the jumpy image around the key fob at around the 1:04 minute mark, the following video presents a prototype version of the system working flawlessly on the German Autobahn in a non-facelift E-Class W212. Keep in mind to turn down the volume if you're not into early 1990s pixelated game sountracks.