Shanghai Vital to Mercedes-Benz’s Technological Success

With increasing competition from budding Chinese automakers, the city of Shanghai is playing an integral role in the future of the world’s established car manufacturers. Mercedes-Benz is no exception the company’s Chief Technology Officer Markus Schäfer told Newsweek during a roundtable conversation at the automaker’s technical center in Sindelfingen, Germany.

In 2018, there were 625 multinational companies with regional headquarters in Shanghai. Those hubs are complemented by 426 foreign-funded research and development centers. The city has the highest GDP of any city in China, growing 8.3 percent in 2021 and 5 percent in 2023 (a 0.1 percent dip occurred in 2022) according to Statista.

In 2022, Mercedes established a new research and development center in Shanghai that works hand-in-hand with the company’s Beijing operations. Its personnel were tasked with focusing on connectivity, automated driving and software and hardware development upon opening.

“The focus in Shanghai is more entertainment and ADAS [advanced driver assistance systems]… [Mercedes is] integrated in the very progressive scheme of the city of Shanghai, [and it offers] areas for test drives for Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 [ADAS]… We have this Level Four car right now on the road doing test drives in Shanghai,” Schäfer said.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines Level 2 driving automation as technology that has steering, acceleration and braking support for the driver while they are in control of the vehicle at all times. Level 3 builds on that, with the driver not in control of the vehicle at all times, but able to take control when the system requests it. Level 4 goes further with a vehicle unable to be controlled by a driver, and sometimes without a steering wheel or pedals.

Schäfer calls the talent pool of Shanghai “best in class,” saying that “you’re in the middle of everything, and you feel every time the beat drops, and that’s so important,” admitting that it’s hard to feel that in Sindelfingen.

“You have to be in the middle of it. You have to feel the speed every day, and then you work with this kind of speed and with this kind of agility,” he said.

The tasks at hand are part of Mercedes’…