Mercedes-Benz Tests Light, Metal, and Grass: The World’s Most Advanced Proving Ground Runs on Robots and Sheep
In the German town of Immendingen, Mercedes-Benz has built a testing complex so advanced that it blurs the line between engineering and simulation — a vast indoor and outdoor laboratory where headlights shine on “perfect roads” regardless of weather or daylight. It is the latest expression of a brand now proving that the future of the automobile is shaped less in design studios and more within controlled universes where even the grass is managed by algorithms.
The new facility stretches 135 meters in length and rises eight meters high — a recreated slice of rural Germany brought indoors. Its asphalt has been specially mixed to mimic the reflective quirks of worn road surfaces. Every imperfection is deliberate, every texture measured, so that Mercedes can achieve perfect testing conditions through engineered imperfection. Up to five cars can run simultaneously while oncoming traffic and pedestrians — the latter made of plastic — are simulated with uncanny precision.
At 10.5 million euros, the lighting test hall may sound modest by luxury-car standards, but it fits perfectly with Mercedes-Benz’s current mantra: precision over spectacle.
Beside it lies the Heide endurance circuit, a brutal proving ground where no human drives anymore. Instead, robotic control units steer cars relentlessly over cobblestones and potholes, covering 6,000 kilometers that equate to 300,000 kilometers of real-world wear. In other words, every lap here equals 150 on the open road — and none of them pleasant.
Automation keeps the process running around the clock. There is no fatigue, no error — only data. Machines do not tire, which makes them ideal test drivers for vehicles increasingly conceived by algorithms rather than intuition.
Every testing module in Immendingen has been mapped to the micrometer. Each bump, stone, and load factor is digitally mirrored in a virtual twin environment, allowing Mercedes to run its suspension systems through hundreds of thousands of virtual kilometers before a single prototype ever touches the tarmac.
The complex spans 520 hectares, with more than 30 dedicated modules — from mountain passes to urban intersections, from American road markings to Japanese motorway replicas. It includes 86 kilometers of test tracks, 256 intersections, and capacity for up to 400 vehicles running simultaneously.
Some areas even feature an artificial sun — the same industrial light source used on Arctic vessels to detect icebergs — repurposed here to recreate low-angle glare or twilight, ensuring that sensors and headlights see everything without blinding anyone.
As improbable as it sounds, part of the site’s upkeep is handled by flocks of sheep and llamas. The former keep the grass trimmed, the latter guard against foxes. Immendingen also incorporates designated wildlife zones, home to rare grasshoppers, bees, and even snakes — proof that Mercedes-Benz can claim an “ecological footprint” while quite literally driving over it 2.5 million kilometers each year.
A decade and some 400 million euros later, Immendingen has become the beating heart of Mercedes-Benz research and development. With 250 permanent staff and more than 2,000 visiting engineers, it represents a future where the road exists not as a place, but as a dataset — and where sheep are as essential to progress as silicon and steel.
