Less than a year after demonstrating their automated parking technology in the U.S., Mercedes-Benz and Bosch have obtained regulatory approval for the driverless parking system to be used in commercial applications.
Germany’s KBA (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, Federal Motor Transport Authority) cleared the pair’s Intelligent Park Pilot for use in APCOA Parking AG’s P6 facility at Stuttgart Airport. This marks the commercial debut of the world’s first highly automated driverless parking function, categorized as Level 4 autonomous driving.
“The world’s first approval for customer use of our highly automated and driverless parking function, developed together with our technology partner Bosch, shows that innovation leadership and ‘Made in Germany’ go hand in hand,” said Mercedes-Benz Chief Technology Officer Markus Schäfer.
The car will drive itself to the assigned space using a smartphone app and numerous sensors around the parking facility
Bosch Chairman for Mobility Solutions Dr. Markus Heyn was equally pleased over the development. “The highly automated parking system we developed together with our partner Mercedes-Benz shows just how far we’ve already progressed along this development path. It will be with driverless parking that everyday automated driving will start,” he said.
Under the technology, the driver simply alights from the car upon reaching the parking facility, sending the vehicle to a pre-booked parking space using a smartphone app. After the driver confirms that the system has taken over, the car automatically starts and drives itself toward a designated parking slot. The same procedure is used when retrieving the car at the pick-up point.
Bosch sensors throughout the facility interact with hardware and software on Mercedes-Benz vehicles to enable driving maneuvers. The car can even brake and come to a complete stop when an obstacle is detected, resuming only when the path is clear.
The feature will initially be available on certain S-Class and EQS models
The feature will be first rolled out within the year on certain S-Class and EQS variants manufactured in July 2022 that are equipped with Intelligent Park Pilot technology. More models are expected to follow. As a further convenience, drivers can use the APCOA Flow digital mobility platform for reservations, contactless entry and exit, and make cashless payments of parking fees.
This sounds like a neat feature to have in the Philippines, where the abundance of shopping malls and other commercial establishments translate into difficulty in finding a parking space. What do you think?
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