The hip color for 2024 — at Mercedes-Benz, no less than — is turquoise.
Turquoise is, in actual fact, more that only a cool shade of blue-green within the Germans’ palate: Turquoise coloured marker lights within the brand’s EQS sedan and S-class will indicate that the cars are moving autonomously.
This can occur in California and Nevada. Those states are the primary within the U.S. to approve Mercedes’s SAE Level 3 self-driving system technology, dubbed Drive Pilot, to be used on public roads.
This system, running as a test for 2 years, will debut in California with series production models of the 2026 EQS sedan and S-class. On the California test vehicles, the turquoise markers will appear within the cars’ headlights, taillights, and on their side mirrors. Mercedes hopes to eventually “standardize” the turquoise signals in vehicles globally.
Besides choosing the distinctive look, Mercedes said that it selected turquoise for its visibility and distinctiveness from the colours used for traffic signals and traditional vehicle lighting. They’ll even be used to signal to other road users — and to police — that the corporate’s SAE Level 3 autonomous-driving system is lively.
With Drive Pilot in use by early next yr, Mercedes says, drivers will find a way to take their hands off the wheel and perform “secondary activities” on the automotive’s infotainment display, resembling sorting emails and online shopping. Usable at hurries up to 40mph, Mercedes says that if any system fails there are braking and steering fail-safes to soundly maintain control of the automotive until the driving force regains control.
This Article First Appeared At www.autoblog.com
