Mercedes Autopilot 004
Sam Charlwood18 Apr 2017
NEWS

Why Mercedes-Benz has ditched 'auto pilot'

The marketing rhetoric behind Mercedes' self-driving tech has changed

When many of us envisage a future with self-driving cars, the visual looks something like this: we settle in for our journey, press the ‘auto pilot’ function and simply kick back.

Well, while the technology draws closer to reality, there has now been a slight deviation in the process.

Mercedes-Benz essentially drew a line in the sand last week, making a clear distinction in the branding and marketing of its autonomous driving functions.

According to head of sales and marketing Britta Seeger, you will no longer see the word ‘pilot’ associated with the German brand’s bourgeoning autonomous driving functions – simply because the car-maker doesn’t want to give customers the wrong impression.

“One thing we started to do is not to name this pilot anymore, in order to prevent customers to think that this is driving,” she said.

“We are naming these assistance systems and I think this is very important in order to set the expectation.

"In communicating to the customer, we take a lot of care to remind them [how the system works]. That you need to grip the steering wheel.”

Mercedes-Benz has already begun implementing its ‘assistance’ moniker across new models, meaning the pilot jargon will be quickly phased out.

“I don’ think it was a mistake, but taking into consideration what happened in the awareness of the customer I think it’s better for the customer to set the expectation of an assistance system,” Seeger said.

This isn’t to say the advent of the self-driving car isn’t coming. According to Seeger, the technology isn’t far away, however, uncertainty still surrounds the speed and extent of necessary legislative changes.

“From the technology side we will see changes in a very short time,” she said.

“Artificial intelligence, learning, better maps, investing in different technology, this will evolve very fast.

“The legislation is very important because it needs to be set and this will probably take some time. We need to find answers to questions. We need to take the right decisions in government.

“I’m very confident. We are very aware that we need to set the right expectations with the customers first and foremost.”

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