OFF DUTY --- Gear & Gadgets -- Rumble Seat: A Self-Driving System With The Mind of a Seasoned Cabbie

“After all these years I remain fascinated by the art and science of automobility. As a critic I feel it is my duty to discover and defend the New. Still, I have my prejudices, my cherished blind spots. For instance, I have never been able to care about advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS), no matter how wondrous. I don't enjoy them, I don't use them and I don't need them. No figs given.

 

That is until last month, in San Francisco, where I attended Mercedes-Benz's presentation of its AI-enabled, Nvidia-empowered MB.Drive Assist Pro system. Coming to the U.S. this year, the company says, MB.Drive Assist Pro provides essentially hands-free, point-to-point autonomous driving in urban environments, allowing users to automate the daily grind with the touch of a button.

 

I might have stifled a yawn. Yes, it's all very interesting. Unlike earlier ADAS technologies, MB.Drive Assist Pro employs an artificial intelligence living on a water-cooled Nvidia superchip, in order to see, understand and anticipate the world around the car. At virtually every instant, this entity is weighing 10 separate options for safe and efficient passage, drawing upon the collected wisdom of thousands of drivers logging almost 10 million miles and executing the best course of action. That's cool.

 

Too bad about the clunky nomenclature, I mused. "MB.Drive Assist Pro" sounds like a trainee position at a golf shop. I took to calling it Harvey, after Elwood Dowd's invisible rabbit.

 

Of course, tens of thousands of Tesla owners already enjoy point-to-point navigation using the company's Full Self-Driving feature. Starting with FSD Version 12.0 in 2023, Tesla parted ways with classical computing in favor of an image-based AI trained on billions of driving miles. How is Harvey any different?

 

The answer has roots in the two companies' tolerance for risk. Tesla's technology relies on only eight cameras to see the world, eschewing the cost and computational load of lidar and other sensors. But cameras have their limits. For one thing, they can be rendered less effective by rain, snow, fog or glare. Most automakers remain skeptical of the optics-only approach, as do some regulators.

 

Mercedes prefers redundancy. Our friend Harvey wears both belts and braces: 10 cameras; five range-sensing lidar units and a dozen ultrasonic parking sensors, which combine to paint a world map in multiple wavelengths. In goes the terabytes; out comes good decisions.

 

Mm-hum, very impressive. May I go to my room now? I can barely keep my eyes open.

 

Harvey will make his debut in the U.S. in the Mercedes-Benz CLA electric sport sedan. From my room on the sixth floor, I watched a pair of Harvey-equipped CLAs in the street, taking journalists on the 5.2-mile demonstration route. The view from above was enlightening, almost clinical. With the cars staged on Mission Street, our long-eared friend was required to move smartly to the left within about 100 feet, then across a pedestrian zone, the southbound lanes of The Embarcadero, two sets of streetcar tracks and another pedestrian crosswalk in front of the Ferry Building. At 9 a.m. on a workday, this area of the Financial District is positively teeming with potential litigants.

 

Now I was interested. Driving in traffic is innately social. Like other group behaviors, traffic exhibits statistical and stochastic patterns, with variations summed over vast regularity. If Harvey's behavior deviated significantly from these dynamical patterns, it would be readily apparent from the sixth floor, sitting in my bathrobe, drinking a latte.

 

Again and again, I observed Harvey navigate the madness like a seasoned cabbie: edging purposefully into traffic, claiming lane position, anticipating the flow of pedestrians, creeping forward to signal intent -- not just smart but clever. He has certainly internalized the first rule of city driving: nose position is everything.

 

At that distance, Harvey's driving performance was only distinguishable by its ordered consistency -- a quality somehow more human than human. I understand if Mercedes doesn't want to use that as a tagline.

 

For the demo ride, I sat in the right front seat and a development engineer sat in the left, with hands lightly touching the steering wheel. Once he activated the system, Harvey had the conn.

 

We glided along the crowded test route, the steering wheel twitching with small, silent, necessary adjustments. Courteous here, collaborative there, competitive when necessary -- Harvey's driving personality was, if I may say, a lot like mine.

 

Once, confronted with a contested four-way stop, Harvey waited for the offending cyclist to clear, then took his turn briskly. Another time, noting the angled front wheels of a parked car, Harvey checked his pace reflexively. Sure enough, the car pulled out in front of us.

 

This rabbit is no slow poke. If Harvey needs to clear a large intersection expeditiously -- in the interests of safety -- he will put his foot down.

 

Typical ADAS systems can be temperamental, disengaging whenever they sense input from the driver, no matter how small, interpreting it as the driver's desire to retake control. Harvey is far more tolerant. The so-called "cooperative steering" function permits drivers to make brief, fine-grained adjustments to the steering and throttle without canceling. If, getting around an Amazon delivery truck, you want to give the driver a bit more breathing room, Harvey won't take it personally. Amazing.

 

Harvey just has a learner's permit. Drivers are still obliged to keep a hand on the wheel and eyes looking up, even when the car is in autonomous mode. Mercedes refers to the enhanced point-to-point abilities as "Level 2++" automation. But the AI architecture lights the way toward Level 3 and 4 automation in future products.

 

With Level 3 automation, Harvey -- or rather, one of his super-smart progeny -- will allow Mercedes owners to take their hands from the wheel and eyes from the road, from their driveways to their reserved parking spaces. Level 4 automation would free them from the driver's seat altogether. It would be just as if a large invisible rabbit was driving.

 

You see him, too, don't you?” [1]

 

1. OFF DUTY --- Gear & Gadgets -- Rumble Seat: A Self-Driving System With The Mind of a Seasoned Cabbie. Neil, Dan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 17 Jan 2026: D6.