Mercedes comes from a tradition of 'keep your mouth shut and then deliver a premium product.' Self-driving cars are not a market where 'move fast and break things' is an acceptable consumer philosophy and Uber demonstrates how tricky it is to reposition your brand from naughty to trustworthy. Mercedes, by contrast, can just run an ad in a year or two announcing that the new Z-Class or whatever it's called can drive you around in any weather and be believed by the vast majority of consumers.
Absolutely agreed and the kind of credibility Mercedes has in the market takes decades of excellent execution to accrue and a few years to fritter it away.
Given that the gap between Mercedes and run of the mill saloon has been closing in real terms rapidly (when I was a kid cars where serviced every 5-12,0000 miles, these days it's not unusual for service periods to be more than twice that with 7 year warranties and the generally higher build/reliability across the board) their brand of understated excellence is a key part of why they can still charge so much.
