When “Bertha”, as the S 500 INTELLIGENT DRIVE research vehicle was known inside the company, autonomously drove the historic route from Mannheim to Pforzheim in autumn 2013, she proved that self-driving cars are no longer something out of science fiction.
By completing the world’s first autonomous journey in everyday overland and city traffic, she succeeded – like her namesake 125 years previously – in making a pioneering achievement.
That “Bertha” gets its rightful place of honour in the Mercedes-Benz museum shows, how fast self-drive technology is advancing. From 26 July until 25 September, she will be on show in the entrance hall, where she can be admired by visitors.
Equipped with close-to-production technology and abundant computing power, she was on the road in 2013 to provide the development engineers at Mercedes-Benz with valuable findings based on the new E-Class, where a new milestone has been achieved.
In Nevada, the highly automated standard-production E-Class has been granted a licence for an autonomous driving trial. Despite innovative features such as DRIVE PILOT and Active Brake Assist with cross-traffic function and pedestrian detection, the vehicle can still not be left entirely to its own devices in everyday traffic.
