Green light for turquoise

cenews – December 19, 2023

Marker lights of a Mercedes-Benz EQS for driving with activated Drive Pilot.

Photo: Autoren-Union Mobilität/Mercedes-Benz

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Marker lights of a Mercedes-Benz EQS for driving with activated Drive Pilot.

Photo: Autoren-Union Mobilität/Mercedes-Benz

To download

Image 2 of 5

Marker lights of a Mercedes-Benz EQS for driving with activated Drive Pilot.

Photo: Autoren-Union Mobilität/Mercedes-Benz

To download

Image 3 of 5

Marker lights of a Mercedes-Benz EQS for driving with activated Drive Pilot.

Photo: Autoren-Union Mobilität/Mercedes-Benz

To download

Image 4 of 5

Marker lights of a Mercedes-Benz EQS for driving with activated Drive Pilot.

Photo: Autoren-Union Mobilität/Mercedes-Benz

To download

Image 5 of 5

Mercedes-Benz is the first car manufacturer in the world to receive an exemption for special marker lights for automated driving in the USA. It is initially limited to two years for development vehicles in the US state of California. In Nevada, use in series production vehicles will be permitted from model year 2026.

The marker lights are intended to signal to other road users, but also to authorities such as the police, that the vehicle is in automated driving mode when "Drive Pilot" is activated. They are integrated into the front and rear lights as well as the two exterior mirrors and feature turquoise lighting. Two criteria have contributed to this choice of color. The visibility enables reliable and quick recognition and differs from other colors for vehicle lighting or traffic light signals such as traffic lights or emergency lights. This minimizes the risk of confusion. In subject studies, the color achieved higher values than other colors for both physiological and psychological factors. Turquoise is also defined in the standard of the American Institute of Transportation Engineering (SAE) as the color for the cockpit light to indicate the system status.

Mercedes-Benz is committed to the color as the global standard for visualizing automated driving status. (aum)