Mercedes-Benz, Bosch and car2go (a subsidiary of Daimler AG) have announced that the firms will be collaborating on the development of a smartphone-enabled, fully-autonomous parking service. Said service will enable users of car2go to book a car and have said vehicle pilot itself up to a predetermined waiting area.
Upon completion of the drive, the user will only be required to park the car at a drop zone. Following a few taps on one’s smartphone, the vehicle will then locate an empty lot in the designated parking facility before driving off by itself to said spot. The concept, in itself, is straightforward enough.
However, the amount of infrastructure required for such a service to operate flawlessly is no small matter. With that said, Dr. Dirk Hoheisel of Bosch claims that “fully automated parking will be ready for mass-production before fully automated driving. Low driving speeds and the information from the car park infrastructure enable a fast implementation.”
First and foremost, an array of proximity and parking lot occupancy sensors, cameras and communications technology will have to be included into the dedicated parking facility. The collaboration will result in Bosch contributing its expertise in in-car communications and autonomous driving tech to work hand in hand with Daimler’s next-generation on-board vehicle sensors.
The resulting tech platform will then be employed in car2go’s fleet of vehicles. “Our customers are always the centre of attention and all of our actions are oriented towards them. In future the car will even go to them. For us, it is another step on our way to autonomous driving – or as in this case, towards autonomous parking,” said Prof. Dr. Thomas Weber of Daimler’s Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development.
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hmmm lets see how its compare against audi and volvo…
This car is cheaper than my son proton after 3 years. No use for all this gadgets.
This will be used to take our freedoms away eventually, cars that can take over control from you are no good, governments will use it against us.