Wonder Why This Mercedes-Benz EV Has Turquoise Lights?

Every appliance in your home features an indicator, a light of some sort. Your TV notifies you about its power status, your smartphone notifies you about the usage of a mic and camera – so why doesn’t self-driving tech in cars do the same? Why shouldn’t it notify the world about your reliance on assistive driving?

That’s exactly what Mercedes Benz has thought of. In a world where every automotive brand has cracked the code and includes advanced self-driving features in most luxurious vehicles, Mercedes wants its products to shine. Quite literally. 

The three-pointed-star German marquee has been testing a pilot project wherein it intends to assign a specific colour of light to self-driving technology, just like the universally accepted colours for braking and turn indicators. But why does Mercedes want to invent a new light code? And why does it choose the turquoise colour for the same? 

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Mercedes self-driving lights: Why turquoise?

While it is easy to assume that the turquoise lights are indicative of a Mercedes invention, the actual reason is far from a simple brand association. Turquoise has been a signature colour for the Mercedes F1 team for over a decade and considering the eight consecutive world constructors championships under its belt, it is quite easy to relate as well. 

However, Mercedes has actual science to base its choice of colour for the self-driving technology indicator. The turquoise colour, as Mercedes says, is clearly distinguishable from existing vehicle lights, emergency signals and traffic lights. This should theoretically reduce the risk of confusion. Additionally, it was found that turquoise performs better psychologically and physiologically than other colours. 

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And why do Mercedes cars need these lights?

The answer is rather simple – to reduce the risk of fatalities related to self-driving. As cool as automated driving looks on paper, it needs to be noted that it is still an experimental feature. Essentially, your vehicle is highly reliant on the onboard computer and its cameras to drive itself on near-perfect road-and-traffic conditions. Mark my words – near perfect.

Hence, it comes as no surprise when Mercedes calls it ‘conditionally automated driving’.

Since the entire system is trained to exercise caution and take preventive steps unlike a human being, it can perform efficiently (and erroneously too). However, humans don’t get firmware updates like computers and hence, human drivers don’t often react as quickly as self-driven cars do. There is still that huge room for error – humans can often counter mistakes made by other human drivers. But when it comes to an unexpected emergency stop made by a self-driven car, there is always a possibility for the human driver to be caught off-guard. 

The result could, thus, be nasty and, occasionally, fatal.

Hence, just as new drivers with a Learner’s permit are asked to paste an ‘L’ sign on their windshields, self-driven cars could do better with a dedicated colour of light to indicate oncoming motorists for exercising caution. In Mercedes’ theory, the turquoise light will warn motorists nearby of a self-driving function in use, thus putting them in a state of caution to avoid sudden reactions and movements. 

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