Mercedes-Benz and Bosch’s driverless parking system is the world’s first to be approved for commercial use

Mercedes-Benz, together with Bosch, has reached a new milestone in autonomous vehicles after the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) approved their highly automated parking system for use at the P6 parking lot of the Stuttgart airport in Germany.

This makes it the world’s first highly automated driverless parking function that meets SAE Level 4 driving automation to be officially approved for commercial operation using privately owned vehicles. At SAE Level 4, the driver is not required to operate the vehicle (under limited driving conditions) when the autonomous driving features are switched on.

The new approval by the KBA is a step up from the world’s first special permit obtained by Mercedes-Benz and Bosch in 2019. At that point, it allowed for the operation of an automated valet parking system using development vehicles without oversight at the parking lot of the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

The company believes that with both vehicle and infrastructure taking over driving and manoeuvring, drivers can turn their attention to other things instead of spending time navigating tight parking lots in search of a spot.

Using the APCOA Flow digital platform developed by APCOA Parking, users can pre-book and pay for a parking space through the smartphone app. Once at the parking lot, users simply step out of their vehicle and the vehicle will drive itself and park in the assigned parking space. The process is reversed when collecting the vehicle, where it will autonomously drive itself out of the parking space and head towards a preset pick-up point.

Bosch sensors are positioned around the parking lot to monitor the corridors and surroundings while feeding information needed to guide the vehicle. Mercedes-Benz’s autonomous driving technology then receives and converts the information into driving manoeuvres.

The intelligence is such that the vehicle can even drive themselves up and down the ramps and move between different levels of the parking lot. If the vehicle’s sensors detect an obstacle, it applies the brakes and comes to a complete stop and will only continue once the route clears.

The new driverless parking system will gradually be rolled out at the Stuttgart airport for use by owners of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS models built since July 2022. The vehicles would need to be equipped with the Intelligent Park Pilot 2 system. The parking spaces can also be booked in advance via the Mercedes me app. Users will also receive a notification via the app confirming that the self-parking system has taken over control of the vehicle.

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