Drive Pilot

1. 5

   Regulator-cleared or mass market

   A regulator has cleared it where approval applies: FDA clearance or approval for a medical robot, a permit to run with no one aboard for a self-driving vehicle, or an FAA approval for routine drone flights. Or: Widely sold: sales in the hundreds of thousands, or a product category you can buy in ordinary shops.

2. 4

   Paying customersThis robot

   Delivered to customers who pay for it, beyond a trial, or a paid service the public can use.

   Placed by: California's DMV gave Mercedes-Benz a permit to sell cars with Drive Pilot for use on some highways in the Bay Area, Central Valley, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego (8 June 2023).

   Held at this stage: Mercedes has dropped Drive Pilot from its updated S-Class and EQS (reported January and February 2026), so the 2023 California permit to sell it no longer describes a system you can buy new. We hold it at stage 4 until the record shows what happens next.

3. 3

   Pilot

   Working with a named customer in a real setting, as a trial.

4. 2

   Pre-orders

   Orders, reservations or deposits taken, with nothing delivered yet.

5. 1

   Demo only

   Shown in videos, staged events or a factory, with no units working for customers.

What we couldn't confirm. We did not find a source saying whether cars already sold keep Drive Pilot. Germany's first Level 3 approval (2021) and US pricing were not confirmed from an opened page. No crashes or investigations found.