Daimler, Bosch, Car2go Partner for Auto-Parking Tech
Giancarlo Perlas June 17, 2015
Daimler is looking to roll out cars with automated parking features before the mass production of self-driving cars. According to the media site of Mercedes’ parent company, it just forged a partnership with Bosch to start a pilot project about cars that will be able to park themselves simply through a command from the user’s smartphone.
The technology will benefit car-sharing service provider car2go to relieve its customers the hassle of looking for a parking space for their cars or searching for it when they need it. The vehicle will be able to do tasks autonomously like driving to designated parking spaces—ensuring the comfort of its users and letting them save plenty of time in the process too.
The press release of the company said the automated parking feature makes use of the intelligent infrastructure in the car park like parking occupancy sensors, cameras and communications technology working in conjunction with a vehicle control unit from Bosch. It also integrates the latest on-board sensors of Mercedes-Benz plus the expertise of car2go.
Once a customer books a vehicle through the car2go app and reaches his pick-up zone in the car park, it will drive by itself to him. Returning the auto is just as easy as placing it in the drop-zone of the car park wherein the system will take care of the parking via the smartphone app.
The project is spearheaded by Dr. Thomas Weber, a member of Daimler’s board and the head of Group Research & Mercedes-Benz Cars Development. He is responsible as well in collaborating with the company’s partners in the endeavour, which are Bosch and car2go. The exec commented that their efforts are focused on their customers and a part of their ultimate goal in developing autonomous driving.
Dr. Dirk Hoheisel of Bosch said the project will be ready for mass-production before cars with fully-automated driving features hit the road.
