Luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz and its technology partner Bosch have been at the forefront of revolutionary automotive techs. Now the German duo has partnered with parking garage operator Apcoa to co-develop automated valet parkings (AVP) in Germany, the first of which will be set up at Stuttgart Airport.

The new valet parking system installed at Stuttgart Airport's P6 parking garage will soon be made operational for commercial purposes. A video regarding the same, shows a Mercedes Benz's latest flagship launch S-Class highlighting the way it is to be operated.

On purchasing a new S-Class, customers will get the option of pre-installing a system called 'Intelligent Park Pilot'. This makes the car capable of receiving a command via a smartphone, to drive itself to a reserved parking space without the need of a driver.

Enabled by its Apcoa Flow digital mobility platform, Apcoa is testing barrier and payment functions as the basis for automatic valet parking. On the other hand, Bosch is providing camera-based infrastructure for the first time to detect lanes and obstacles.

How Does This System Work?

These Bosch video cameras will help detect vacant spaces in the garage and send the information to a local server which will process the data and provide the car a convenient route from the drop-off point to the desired parking bay. Bosch has moved on from the older Lidar based technology and is using these new video cameras instead. The digital payment interface from Apcoa will also provide for people to pre-book their parking and contactless entry and exit.

Behind the entrance of the designated garage, there will be a dedicated space for AVP users to leave the car. The car then drives itself to the basement of the parking garage with the help of the guidance offered by the system after acquiring the required permission from the user. All this while, the user gets all the details of his/her car getting parked. Once parked, it will remain there until the owner has arrived back from their trip.

After the person returns, the system sends this information to the car and it drives itself to the area where the owner had left it. As of now, there are only two spaces allocated for AVP at Stuttgart Airport but Bosch and Mercedes are looking to ramp up their technology to provide more such spaces in future in other garages and other parts of Germany as well.

Benefits of Automated Parking

Driverless parking eliminates the need for opening doors thus reducing space required for each car. This could essentially allow 20 percent more cars to be parked in the same bay. 2021 Mercedes Benz S-Class is the German marque's premier flagship sedan and has been equipped with Level 4 Automated driving technology, the second highest level of automation.