What We’re Reading

• Mercedes-Benz Gets Approval to Sell Level 3 Self-Driving Cars in California (Road & Track, June 9, 2023)

  Mercedes-Benz is taking an even bigger lead in the race to autonomy, having now secured approval from the California DMV to sell vehicles equipped with the OEM’s Level 3 system, Drive Pilot, in that state. Mercedes previously obtained the same approval in Nevada and overseas in Germany.

  Drive Pilot will be made available to U.S. buyers as an option on Mercedes 2024 EQS and S-Class sedans, and will allow drivers to take their hands off of the wheel and eyes off of the road “on designated stretches of highway during daylight hours at speeds up to 40 mph.” According to this article, and as previously reported by Road & Track, “[o]ne big way Mercedes' Drive Pilot system differs from Level 2 driving assistance features like Tesla's Autopilot or GM's SuperCruise is in legal responsibility. When active, Mercedes takes responsibility for Drive Pilot's actions.”

  What does this really mean, though? We wrote about the practical implications of this liability commitment last year for Carrier Management. Read that article here.

• What Tesla charging partnerships with Ford and GM mean for the EV industry (CNBC, June 9, 2023)

  GM quickly joined Ford in announcing that its drivers will have access to Tesla’s charging network through an adapted North American Charging Standard (NACS) port.

  NACS is Tesla’s “proprietary plug design.” Currently, only Teslas can use NACS chargers; other EVs typically charge using the Combined Charging System (CCS) plug standard. This difference has been a significant advantage for Tesla until now, as Tesla’s charging network is far-and-away superior to all other options. “In a study last year, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley checked 675 CCS fast chargers in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that almost a quarter of them weren’t functional. An August 2022 study by JD Power found similar results for CCS chargers in other parts of the country. Notably, it also found Tesla’s charging network to be much more reliable.”

  These partnerships will likely lead to economic benefit for everyone involved, and potentially even wider adoption of EVs in the U.S. as infrastructure barriers are removed. In fact, Tesla is pointing to adoption as its primary motivator in making its design publicly available: “Our mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. ... Giving every EV owner access to ubiquitous and reliable charging is a cornerstone of that mission.”

  In a related story, Reuters reported that the White House said last week that EV charging stations that use NACS plugs would be eligible for federal subsidies as long as they also include a CCS option.

• US tells automakers not to comply with Massachusetts vehicle data law (Reuters, June 13, 2023)

  NHTSA has joined the debate over the Massachusetts Right to Repair law that currently is the subject of federal litigation, sending a letter to “nearly two dozen major automakers” telling them “they must comply with a federal vehicle safety law and not with the state law that requires open remote access to vehicle telematics and vehicle-generated data.” NHTSA’s primary concerns appear to center on cybersecurity and safety. At the same time, NHTSA cautioned automakers against disabling telematics in response to the law, including because NHTSA routinely uses telematics data to investigate crashes.

  NHTSA’s complete letter can be read here; for more on “Right to Repair,” see our blog post on the topic here.