Regulators in California granted Mercedes-Benz a license that allows it to market or lease cars with a conditional automated driving system. 

On some highways, drivers of Mercedes vehicles are permitted to operate their vehicles hands- and eyes-free.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles announced on Thursday that it had given Mercedes-Benz permission to use its Drive Pilot system under its own name. On designated California highways, including Interstate 15, the hands-off, eyes-off conditional automated driving system may be used under specific circumstances without the active control of a human driver. Thus, drivers are no longer required to pay attention to the road ahead or keep their hands on the wheel while they watch videos, send texts, or converse with passengers.

According to the DMV, which oversees autonomous vehicle regulation in the state, Mercedes-Benz is the first company qualified to sell or lease vehicles equipped with an automated driving system to the general public in California and the fourth company to receive an autonomous vehicle deployment permit. 

The deployment permit enables the use of Drive Pilot on highways in the Central Valley, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Sacramento, and San Diego.

Although some of the same principles apply, Drive Pilot is not the same as the fully autonomous systems created by Cruise, Motional, Waymo, and Zoox. The Drive Pilot system manages driving tasks in some situations without the active control of a human driver by combining sensors like lidar, radar, and cameras with software. 

Only during daylight hours and at speeds up to 40 mph on specific highways is Mercedes' system functional. According to the DMV, the system won't operate on city or county roads, in construction zones, during periods of intense rain or fog, on flooded roads, or when other weather conditions are deemed to have an adverse effect on the system's performance.