I did find an interesting article which discusses "what things are classed as" vs " what things can do". So for example Tesla's autosteer is very advanced and could be considered level 4. Teslas have driven across America without human input. However in Europe the roads are more complicated.
Musk could be classing the same tech as Level 2 in Europe so that the tech is released out of Beta and has approval so that Tesla can start accumulating data, improve the system and later ask for uprating.
Yeah, the levels are a bit movable, but the key in my opinion is the reliability for less driver interaction as the levels increase. Tesla don't publicly align with these levels but level 2 seems the consensus.
I feel that no-one is going to get to production cars (ie, ones we can buy) at level 4 or 5 anytime soon, with some companies such as Cruise getting to that level within highly bounded scenarios.
Reading the Mercedes announcement, this is only level 3 on certain motorways and speed restricted as well.
I think this is where it will go - motorways where the problem is less open then level 4/5 seems possible in the near term and also advantageous. But I think advanced driver aids - and also ones that help behind the scenes rather than promise hands off driving - are going to be the future for now.
Data collection is great, but the models become increasing complex so I wonder what can actually be achieved without turning the car into a very expensive server room on wheels. I think the issues with Cruise were attributed to loss of communication which suggests to me a lot of processing happening off the car and then we are into communications infrastructure being key as well.
My fear is that car companies, realising that the current road systems are too complex for near term autonomous driving start to lobby to make it simpler. Pedestrians being limited to official crossings, cyclists removed from many roads. That kind of thing. Sounds a bit paranoid, but this is the lobby that got the whole jaywalking thing in the US. I cannot see it happening in Europe but who knows?
In comparison my ID4 can't even decide that if I say "Navigate to Tesco Weybridge" (3 miles away) that this is not in fact "Tesco Wadebridge" which is 231 miles away. Basic decision making is beyond VW's tech at the moment. Yes, it might be unsure whether I said Wadebridge or Weybridge, but the distance should be the clincher. Or just don't bother designing your own satnav and use Google.
Of course I *can* use Android Auto but it doesn't integrate with the groovy interior lighting to tell me which way to go...
Speech recognition in cars is horrible. I think google does their speech recognition in the cloud, and I doubt this happens with VW so they are stuck using embedded processors. I also think a lot of this is not AI based, but algorithm. Natural Language AI is normally done on some fairly high end processors which would add quite a lot of cost and complexity.
I have never tried speech recognition in a Tesla so not sure how they implement it or how good it is. I will do some googling :-)
My old car had "speech recognition". Insofar as you could say a name to call on the handsfree and it would then pick someone at random to phone. My slightly newer car is better but still very far from perfect.
I think that car manufacturers will "give up" on proprietary systems at some stage - I believe Volvo and some chinese manufacturers run Android OS for their own multimedia now as it is. They just need to figure out how to integrate your groovy lights!