Mercedes And BMW Abandon Level 3

At the end of 2021, Mercedes-Benz proudly announced that the Mercedes S-Class and EQS were the first Level 3 systems (according to SAE) to be approved by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), allowing drivers to engage in other activities under certain conditions. However, the restrictions were significant. It was only approved for use on highways at speeds of up to 60 (later 95) kilometers per hour, and there had to be a vehicle in front, i.e., when stuck in traffic, and the function only worked within the same lane. BMW, the competition from Munich, offered a similar function, the Personal Pilot L3, for a mere €6,000. The Mercedes-Benz system was not much cheaper either.

It comes as little surprise that not many customers were interested in this rather limited option and hefty surcharge. There were also no public videos of customers on the relevant video platforms and social media filming themselves using this feature. The only videos on this topic came from the manufacturers themselves, or from automotive journalists and influencers who had been given access to a vehicle with this feature.

However, decision-makers in Stuttgart and Munich were surprised that there was no interest in this feature. Now they are pulling the emergency brake. These functions can no longer be ordered on the new models starting 2026. Neither Mercedes, nor BMW are offering them anymore. Google decided ten years ago that it would not develop a Level 3 system after seeing how long it took human drivers to regain full control of the vehicle during the first test drives. Others came to the same conclusion in 2026, after investing a considerable amount of money and time in development.

Just five months ago, Mercedes proudly accepted an innovation award for this system, which has now been scrapped, and that, as I said, 10(!) years after the true innovators canceled such a system and immediately focused on Level 4.

What does this say about the two manufacturers?

They believed that with Level 3, they could slowly work their way up to Level 4. But that’s nothing more than continuing to optimize the candle while others are building the light bulb. Or, to use another example, building a ladder to the moon instead of a rocket. Why? Because you are familiar with ladder technology and can see the progress being made, whereas with the rocket you first have to develop a completely new technology, where you won’t see any progress for a long time. In the end, however, those who have developed a rocket will win. Why am I saying this?

Such a Level 3 system does not need to know exactly what is in front of it and how it might behave differently when accelerating and braking. It does not need to understand whether the vehicle in front of it is a truck, a car, or a motorcyclist. The system also does not need to recognize moving objects such as pedestrians, animals, or wheelchair users, let alone traffic lights, turning lanes, or police officers. In other words, nothing that a vehicle might encounter on a road in urban or rural traffic. And it certainly does not need to know about their typical traffic behavior.

Classifying these objects and recognizing their behavior requires a much more complex software system, which would be far too excessive for a Level 3 system. The leap from Level 3 to Level 4 is therefore a big one. Such a Level 3 system is more comparable to a better candle or a better sailing ship than to the incandescent light bulb or the steamboat, as a Level 4 system would represent. It is a completely different architecture and complexity.

Companies such as Google, Zoox, and Cruise (as it was then) understood this early on and therefore did not bother with the development of a Level 3 system, but instead tackled Level 4 right away.

The fact that it took both manufacturers 10 years to realize this suggests a certain resistance to learning. This meant that valuable time (and money) was lost that could have been spent focusing on a Level 4 system. But the main thing is that they won an innovation award for it. Incidentally, I am now waiting for the same announcement about Intelligent Park Pilot, which is similarly stupid in terms of customer needs and even counts as a Level 4 system. But that’s another story.

Final Words

I just wrote an article about the SAE level system, in which I analyze whether these levels are still relevant today.

This article was also published in German.