Mercedes has been approved to use turquoise-coloured lights in its self-driving electric cars in California and Nevada.

It becomes the world’s first car maker to receive permits for special ‘exterior marker lights’ for its automated vehicles, with a permit allowing Mercedes to test vehicles in California for two years, while its permit in Nevada applies to production vehicles within the 2026 model year and will remain in place ‘until a statutory modification is achieved with the state legislature’.

However, both permits allow Mercedes to fully test their autonomous vehicles on the public highway while these new ‘marker lights’ are being used to help other road users properly identify them. It also allows police or traffic enforcement to see the car’s self-driving status and work out whether or not drivers are allowed to ‘engage in secondary activities’, or essentially take their attention away from the road. 

Markus Schäfer, board member at Mercedes-Benz Group AG for technology, development and purchasing, said: "The more automated driving vehicles populate the road, the more important communication and interaction between the vehicle and the environment become.”

The lights themselves will be positioned into the front and rear lights, as well as on the wing mirrors. Mercedes chose turquoise as the colour for these lights due to its visibility which allows it to be quickly seen and also its separation from other coloured lights used by emergency services or within traffic signals. Its use helps prevent confusion and Mercedes says that, as a result, it’ll be looking to standardise the use of turquoise in self-driving cars in the future. 

Turquoise was chosen as it's different to emergency vehicles