More states are beginning to test autonomous cars on public roads. But if cars of the future will be able to "drive" themselves, shouldn't we expect they would be able to park themselves, too? Now, Mercedes-Benz has paired up with the electronics arm of supplier Bosch to make this plan a reality.
As part of a pilot project, the two companies will develop technology allowing cars to independently park themselves in a parking lot set up with the proper sensors. Mercedes envisions the service can be used at Daimler's car-sharing company, Car2Go. To order a vehicle for rental, drivers would simply use an app on their smartphone.
"As soon as the user is ready in the pick-up-zone of the car park, the car drives up independently and the ride can begin. Returning the car is just as comfortable," Daimler explained in a recent statement. "The customer parks it in the drop-zone of the car park and returns the car via their smartphone. The intelligent system of the car park registers the vehicle, starts it and directs it to an assigned parking space."
Daimler will be responsible for the sensor systems and software in its Car2Go vehicles. Meanwhile, Bosch is currently developing infrastructure for the car garages, including occupancy sensors, cameras, and other technologies that can communicate with the self-parking cars.
“Fully automated parking will be ready for mass-production before fully automated driving,” said Dirk Hoheisel, a member of the board of management for Bosch, in a recent statement. “Low driving speeds and the information from the car park infrastructure enable a fast implementation.”
Mercedes-Benz isn't the first automaker to envision a future for self-parking cars. Earlier this year, BMW announced a self-parking i3 that can be operated by a smartwatch. Nissan has also debuted a self-parking Leaf, and Volvo has also experimenting with a similar technology on a V40 hatch.
This article originally appeared on MSN.
