Mercedes-Benz has become the world’s first automobile manufacturer to receive permits for special exterior marker lights for automated driving in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. California has granted the automaker a 2-year exemption from rules that would ordinarily prohibit turquoise light, and the Nevada permit applies to Mercedes-Benz Model Year 2026 production vehicles and will remain valid until a statutory modification is achieved with the state legislature.
Both permits allow Mercedes-Benz to gain important insights into the interaction of automated vehicles and other road users. The notion that such marker lights might ease public acceptance of automated driving and contribute to road safety by advertising the automated driving system’s status is one idea competing with its direct opposite, and these permits will allow real-world trials that could resolve that simmering debate. They also will allow traffic law enforcement officers and systems to identify the system’s status and determine whether drivers are permitted to engage in secondary activities during the conditionally automated journey. Designed in accordance with SAE J3134, the turquoise-coloured marker lights are integrated into the front and rear lights as well as the two outside mirrors on the equipped Mercedes cars.
Mercedes-Benz CTO for Development and Purchasing Markus Schäfer says, “With the development of automated driving marker lights, Mercedes-Benz is once again setting new industry standards. We are the first automaker in the world to receive such approvals in the U.S., specifically in California and Nevada. The more automated driving vehicles populate the road, the more important communication and interaction between the vehicle and the environment become”.
The automated driving marker lights will initially be integrated into testing vehicles in California equipped with Drive Pilot, the world’s L3 system with internationally valid type approval. Drive Pilot received certification in 2021 in Germany and in 2023 in Nevada and California (in the U.S., there is no type approval; each state requires separate certification—just as was the case with each and every item of vehicle lighting equipment before the 1968 advent of FMVSS № 108). In Germany, Drive Pilot has been available for order since 2022, and in the United States, the first equipped vehicles recently headed onto the freeways of California and Nevada.
Turquoise was the colour of choice because of its reliable and fast detection by other road users, and its differentiation from existing vehicle and traffic signal light colours such as traffic lights (green) and emergency vehicle lights (blue). Physiological and psychological factors weighed in favour of turquoise in almost all areas than other colours considered for this function. The development and approval of the new lighting concept involved collaborative efforts of an interdisciplinary team of engineers, compliance managers, data protection experts, and—significantly—ethics experts.
Mercedes-Benz is committed to standardizing the colour turquoise as a means to visualize the automated driving state, fostering global understanding and acceptance for this technology. So far, there is no general framework for using turquoise lights in production vehicles in the United States, China, or the most-of-the-world bloc of countries applying the UN Regulations. California and Nevada have taken the first important step toward a future globally-harmonized regulation for turquoise AD marker lights.
