Today’s cars seem to have more and more will of their own. Their builders equip them with lane assist that pushes you back when you get too close to the line. Also think of automatic parking where you sit smiling, but somewhat nervously watching how your car puts itself between two other cars. And where will that go in the future? Toyota has already let a Supra drift autonomously and Mercedes now says they could just look at something similar.
The Australian branch of carsales.com spoke with Mercedes CEO Jörg Bartels. In that conversation, Bartels indicates that Mercedes has the technical capacity to build in a do-this-turn-only-transverse mode. ‘An automatic drift mode? Yes, of course. We could do this because we always know what situation the car is in.’
Autonomous drifting through torque distribution and drive by wire
‘We have sensors for everything, so we know that. You just need a lot of space to do something like that, and besides torque distribution you have drive by wire necessary because you may have to take the wheel [van de bestuurder].’ He adds that cars with two or four engines, such as the EQG that can spin in place, would be ideal for an application like this.
‘Maybe it’s coming’, says Bartels about autonomous drifting. For the time being, Mercedes owners will have to make do with a drift mode, such as on the new AMG C 63 SE Performance. So enjoy the moment that you still decide for yourself how you take the bend.
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