Jim Farley told Bloomberg TV that, contrary to popular belief, not all people want to drive as much as possible. He substantiated this claim with statistics on the use of the BlueCruise driving assistance system.
"BlueCruise has been so much more popular than we expected, which is hands-free," Farley said. He also added that what Blue Oval is working on now is a step up from existing technology.
SAE Level 3 technology means that the car can move along the road on its own and the person in the driver's seat doesn't have to constantly monitor the system. Although he or she still needs to be ready to take over in case of an emergency that the automation can't handle. This is something that Tesla CEO Ilon Musk has been promising for his electric cars for years and which is already working in Mercedes-Benz on some roads.
"Level 3 autonomy will allow you to go hands and eyes off the road on the highway in a couple years so then your car becomes like an office. You could do a conference call and all sorts of stuff," Farley added. At the same time, he specified that bad weather conditions, such as heavy rain or snow, could be a limitation for such a system to work.
Source: Bloomberg
