Mercedes Robotaxi Plans Take Shape with S-Class at the Core

Mercedes-Benz has outlined its vision for a global Mercedes robotaxi ecosystem, centred on the next-generation S-Class and developed in partnership with leading technology and mobility players. The luxury automaker is working with Nvidia and Momenta on the technology side, while ride-hailing and mobility providers Uber and Lumo are set to operate the autonomous vehicles across multiple regions.

At the heart of the strategy is the S-Class, which Mercedes-Benz says has been engineered with full system redundancies for steering, braking, computing and power supply. These fail-safe measures are critical for Level 4 autonomous operation. The brand’s new MB.OS operating system will act as the backbone of the robotaxi platform, supporting driverless shuttle services across America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Nvidia will play a key role by supplying its Drive Hyperion hardware architecture along with Drive AV Level 4 software for the ecosystem being jointly developed with Mercedes-Benz and Uber. In parallel, Mercedes-Benz is also collaborating with Chinese autonomous driving specialist Momenta on a separate Level 4 robotaxi project based on the S-Class.

Mobility provider Lumo, a subsidiary of technology company K2, will be among the first operators to deploy these autonomous S-Class shuttles. Initial operations are planned for Abu Dhabi, where the first Mercedes robotaxi test vehicles are scheduled to hit public roads later this year.